


Dance for Me

by bae_in_a_trenchcoat



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, First Dates, Fluff, Love, Meet-Cute, Minor Berlín/Palermo Denver/Stockholm Río/Tokyo, Slow Burn, like it's hinted at but it's not about them as of now, music festival fic, sorry I'm bad at tagging, that's basically it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:47:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26173687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bae_in_a_trenchcoat/pseuds/bae_in_a_trenchcoat
Summary: Sergio is dragged to a festival by Andrés but it turns out to not be as bad as he expected, as there is a certain special woman also attending the festival. Will he get the chance to explore what is so special about their connection though?
Relationships: Raquel Murillo/Professor | Sergio Marquina
Comments: 118
Kudos: 232





	1. Who are you?

If there was one thing about his brother Sergio had learned in his life so far, it would be that if he had set his mind to something, he would get it, no matter the cost. The situation Sergio found himself in right now was a perfect example for that. Andrés had set his mind to getting Sergio to go with him and his friends to the biggest music festival of the country. 

So, there he was, trying desperately to find a comfortable position in their shared tent to continue reading his book about the stock market and on how to make clever investments. But there simply was no comfortable position in a tent. Even with the camping mat _and_ his sleeping bag between the ground and him, he could still perfectly sense each and every little stone and bulge on the ground. He’d give his right arm to just be at home in his armchair and read the book surrounded by silence. Beside not being able to concentrate while trying to find a position, there was also the continuous chatter of people all around the tent and a mix of different music from everywhere. Most conversations were unintelligible but nevertheless incessant and utterly distracting. The one conversation he could actually understand everything of was of course the conversation between Andrés and Martín who were unluckily sitting right in front of his tent on their camping space.  
And don’t even get him started on the increasing heat inside the tent. That was just unbearable.

“Oh, come on outside already, hermanito! You’re missing out on all the fun.”

Sergio suppressed a huff. His brother had a strange definition of fun. Drinking copious amounts of alcohol with total strangers to music that was far too loud to be enjoyable and definitely too loud and distracting to make actual conversation with the strangers.

“How did you even get him here?” He made out Martín.

“I have my ways.”

_Yeah right, being annoying as hell is your way._

“But did you really _have_ to bring him?”

“You know I can hear you, right?” And with that Sergio resigned his attempt to read and joined them outside.

After hanging out in their camp for a little bit longer and talking about anything and everything, the three of them decided to join Andrés’ and Martín’s friends at the festival infield to see some of the concerts. Or well technically Andrés and Martín decided to go, and Sergio followed them seeing no point in trying to concentrate on reading his book anymore anyway.

\--- 

Andrés was happy to finally meet his friends Paco, who everyone called Bogotá after his birthplace, and Vanja who got the nickname Marseille after being found there most of his holidays and every chance he got. Bogotá and Marseille had gotten to the camping site earlier than Andrés and Martín, so they had only sent the position of their camp and informed Andrés they were to be found at the infield until the evening. And since both of them had moved away to go to university and work in Valencia after school, Andrés didn’t get to see them quite as often as he would have liked.

“Oh, hey Sergio! Long time no see. Didn’t expect you here.” Marseille hugged him.

“Hi, Marseille. Good to see you. Andrés wouldn’t take no for an answer, as you can imagine.” Marseille nodded with a blank face.

Sergio greeted Bogotá with a quick nod as the five of them went to join the crowd in front of the stage.

\---

Andrés and Martín really seemed to enjoy themselves and each other as they kept dancing, jumping, clapping and being generally carefree, while the rest simply stood there, listening to the music, rocking back and forth a bit occasionally and applauding after each song. 

But even though he didn’t expect it when he was practically being dragged to the festival, Sergio somewhat liked listening to live music. It being loud was fine as long as there was only one source and wasn’t mixed up with other music or chatter, unlike on the camping site where the mix of various music and chatter was a bit overwhelming. And the music itself was also quite enjoyable, some rocky tunes mixed with jazz music. It was different compared to the music he usually listened too but maybe he could get into this style a little bit more upon getting home. It could serve as a pleasant variety.

Just as the third performance started to begin, Andrés and Martín excused themselves to go somewhere else to do whatever, Sergio didn’t even want to know what exactly. So, he kept on awkwardly standing next to Bogotá and Marseille who he both didn’t know well enough to actually engage with them. Though he was quite fond of Marseille, even if that stemmed from him being a quiet guy and the silent agreement on not having to make forced conversation. So even that didn’t help solve the awkwardness.

Instead of dwelling on noticing the awkwardness, he focused on the music and the performance in front of him again. This concentration didn’t last long though.

“Sorry? Could I maybe stand in front of you so I can see something, please?”

He turned to the source. A young woman around his own age was trying to get the attention of the group next to him, seemingly in search for a better spot. Considering she was rather petite and not the tallest, he figured she probably had a hard time seeing anything that happened on the stage.

“Stay where you are! Why do people like you always have to get the best spot possible when someone else clearly earned it rightfully?” The guy next to Sergio snubbed at her as she tried to push past him.

“Excuse me?” She looked at him startled by the tone and his global accusation.

“Yeah, you heard right! Stay the hell where you are. There’s people who got here hours ago to get a good spot and you have the audacity to come as late as possible and then go ahead and demand the best spot! This ain’t your fairytale where you get everything you wish for, little princess!”

She let out a barely audible “wow” and collected herself: “Listen, I’m really sorry. But I really love this band and…I’m not nearly tall enough to see anything of the gig. Like at all. I only see the back of people’s heads.”

“That’s not my problem. Then simply get here earlier.”

“I…see, it’s none of your business, I couldn’t. Besides, where’s the problem exactly? I’m not even blocking anyone’s view, you see my height. So, your concert experience stays the same, it makes no difference if I’m in front of you or behind you.”

“It’s a matter of principle. You can’t just come here expecting everyone to be at your bidding!”

“That’s what I’m saying, I’m not. I’m simply asking for a favor. Anyway, I’m sorry.”

“Then go –“ 

Sergio couldn’t stand it anymore as the guy clearly wouldn’t stop.

“Just let it be already. She said she’s sorry. Stop being so rude. Everyone heard your precious principles.” He directed his attention back to her. “Come over. You can stand in front of me. I think the view is quite fine from here.” Smiling he held out his hand in her direction.

She gladly took his hand and went over to him, neither of them noticing the guy next to Sergio rolling his eyes at them.

“Thank you.” She gave him a smile and he couldn’t have denied her anything.

“Any time.”

And with that, time seemed to stop for Sergio. The band on stage faded, the people around him faded and even Bogotá and Marseille faded. All he could focus on was the woman in front of him. Her intoxicating smell, her beautiful light brown to blonde long hair and how close she was. And oh, her dance moves! He was outright hypnotized by the way she swayed her hips from side to side, the way her hair flew with every move brushing his shirt. Her shoulders occasionally brushing his chest and the warmth spreading from the touches surely didn’t help his focus on anything else but her mesmerizing dance. And with every brush of her shoulder his urge to touch her grew. He didn’t understand this sudden urge and while feeling like a creep for it, he managed to restrain from giving in to it. 

Focusing on anything but his surroundings besides her was why he didn’t even hear Marseille trying to get his attention until he felt a hand on his shoulder and was snapped out of his trance as he looked at Marseille’s amused face.

“Hey Sergio, Bogotá and I are gonna go grab a beer, you coming?”

“Uhm.” Sergio needed a second to process Marseille’s words before responding: “No I’m good. I’m staying here, the music is so good.”

“Right, the _music_.” Marseille looked at Bogotá, eyebrows raised and tried to hold back a laugh when Bogotá shot him a knowing look.

“Then see you later.” And with that Sergio was the last of his group still in the crowd.

Before getting the chance to process the non-verbal communication that seemed to have been going on between Marseille and Bogotá, the woman before him turned her head and shot him a bright smile that suddenly warmed his insides only to turn away again and continue dancing. With his mouth hanging slightly open and a tingling feeling in his chest he resumed admiring her dance as well. What was happening to him? What was this complete stranger doing to him?

But as soon as he started to dive deeper into this thought, the gig ended and the woman in question turned around to him, smiling again. Making his head swim and the tingling feeling in his chest return.

“Wow, this was great!” She declared enthusiastically.

“Oh yeah.”

“Thanks again for letting me see something!”

“De nada, really.”

“So…what are you up to now?” She looked at him hopefully.

“I guess I’m going to look for my brother and his friends or go back to our camp maybe.”

She made a sound of approval.

“Are you alone here?”

“Ah, no. My sister gotta be around here somewhere. And my best friend was sleeping as I left for the gig. Guess I’m gonna go and search for them then, too.” She eagerly waited for his answer.

“Yeah.” He said with a kind smile and they went separate ways.

While walking back to their camp it dawned on Sergio that he didn’t even ask for her name or anything. Or ask her if they’d hang out. Or maybe even ask for her number. How was he going to ever meet her again among all these people? This festival was full of people, there was no way he would ever see her again. All because he got so overwhelmed by her, he completely forgot to exchange info. And now there was no chance to go back and make it right. He’d never see her and her mesmerizing dance again. And as surprising as it was to him, he really wanted to meet her again.

\--- 

Lost in thought he didn’t even realize he had almost reached their camp until he heard Andrés laughing. From afar he already saw that Andrés must have met new people as there were now more people at their place than just his brother, Martín, Bogotá and Marseille.

“Mi hermanito!” Andrés exclaimed as Sergio reached them. “Meet our new friends!”

And so he greeted the new members of Andrés’ circle of friends, which introduced themselves as Daniel, Silene, Anibal, Ágata, Mirko and Laura. Especially Laura seemed to have hit it up with his brother as during the whole evening all of them spent together they constantly put their heads together and laughed about things only they knew. Not without a disapproving look from Martín obviously.

Sergio stayed with the group for a bit, getting to know the new members a bit but excused himself to his tent some hours later. With all the new experiences, meeting so many new people and the exhaustion that came with all of that, he was tired. And even though the party outside his tent continued and he remembered the beautiful woman from the concert, how she danced, her heart melting smile and how he’d never see her again, he was able to fall asleep quite quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this multi-chapter fic. You have no idea how much I'd appreciate some kind of feedback as this is my first fic in this fandom and the first fiction work I've written in years :)
> 
> Also if there's anyone who'd want to beta read hmu please :)


	2. Hello Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your support on the first chapter, all the comments and kudos made me immensely happy!  
> And thank you a lot, Beata, for helping me so much with imporiving this chapter!
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy the second chapter of this :)  
> I will try to update every week/every other week. But I'm afraid the third chapter is going to take more time (maybe 2 weeks this time) as I really have to get back to working on my thesis :D Apparently that doesn't write itself either pfff.

Sergio was the first to wake up the next morning. At 8 a.m. it was already getting too hot to sleep in the tent. And unlike his companions he didn’t stay up that long and didn’t drink anything. So, after taking a quick shower in the continuously crowding sanitary area, he went for a short walk across the camping site and spent some time alone. He enjoyed the cool and clean morning air filling his lungs. He was amazed by the mysterious drowsiness of a festival at this time. It was almost like an organism slowly waking up. Most of the attendants were still sleeping off their late partying but yet there were already many people around, going to take a shower or a walk, like himself. Some were even sitting in their camp talking to their friends, having coffee or even a beer for breakfast. But it was still surprisingly quiet. The day had only just begun here. The sun had risen some hours ago though, so it was slowly starting to warm up.

When he came back to his own camp the rest of his group was awake, too, drinking beer still on their way to shake off the drowsiness. Sergio fetched the gas grill they had packed instead because he preferred to prepare some coffee but joined them in their light chatter. They continued chatting, drinking and listening to some music until around noon.

As they were preparing lunch on their gas grill, they were joined by some familiar faces.

“Lauraaa.” Andrés excitedly jumped up to hug her.

Laura wasn’t alone though. She brought two other women with her instead. Recognizing one of them made Sergio’s heart race and his face heat up. It was the pretty woman that had danced in front of him yesterday. While she seemed to recognize him too because her face lit up as she smiled a kind smile, Sergio froze on the spot and didn’t know how to react.

“Let me introduce to you Mónica” Laura laid her arms around the shoulders of a woman with blonde curls right next to her, “and my sister Raquel.” Laura looked past Mónica at the woman Sergio had recognized from yesterday. “These are Andrés, Martín, Bogotá, Sergio and Marseille.” She introduced the group to Mónica and Raquel.

_Raquel._

Sergio smiled to himself.

“Can I sit here, _Sergio_?” Raquel was suddenly in front of him and gesturing towards the place next to him.

For a second all he could do once again was stare up at her, an already familiar warmth spreading in his chest at hearing his name out of her mouth for the first time. He wasn’t sure if any sound could truly compete with this one. If that was the only thing he would have to hear for the rest of his life, he wouldn’t even complain.

“Su – Of course!” He answered maybe a little too eager, pushing his glasses nervously up his nose.

Marseille and Bogotá shared a knowing look resembling the one from yesterday upon seeing Sergio so flustered. Knowing his brother’s tells very well Andrés chimed in to their silent communication with raised eyebrows and a smirk trying not to just start laughing.

To Sergio, this silent conversation passed below his perceptional threshold as he desperately tried to come up with an interesting topic to talk to Raquel. It wasn’t as easy as coming up with a discussion topic under normal circumstances because he seemed to have temporarily lost most of the connections between his brain and his mouth.

Luckily for him, Raquel didn’t struggle with starting small talk.

“So, what is it that you do for a living?”

“I…uhm…I’m a postdoctoral research assistant at the autonomous university here in Madrid. Actually aspiring to qualify as a professor.”

“Oh wow, in what field?”

“Economics. What do you do?”

“I’m a practicing psychotherapist.”

“Ooh, we gotta be careful what we say. We’re being analyzed!” Martín interrupted them, having eavesdropped on the conversation.

“Haven’t heard that one before.” Raquel responded sarcastically and restrained from rolling her eyes. “I’m not analyzing anyone. I don’t know if you know but some people _aren’t_ their jobs and have a life apart from their job. A life where they are like everyone else off duty. Sure, I’m not leaving everything at the doorstep and becoming a completely different person but I’m still meeting new people like everybody else. And almost everyone is analyzing others to some degree, if not, communication would fail in most cases. And before you ask: no, neither am I diagnosing anyone.”

The group got quiet at that. Martín couldn’t muster up a good comeback, so just looked at Raquel dumbfoundedly.

Contrary to expectation, Sergio was the first to find his speech again. He was satisfied by the way she told Martín off for his unsolicited remark.

“Do you want some coffee?” He asked Raquel.

“That sounds great.” She smiled thankfully at him and laid her hand lightly on top of his.

Her touch was electric. His receptors flared up and the warmth of her hand spread in his own hand and up his forearm, resembling spreading flames. Slowly exhaling the breath he had just been holding, he returned her smile. But he didn’t dare to break the contact in order to actually go and make coffee. He enjoyed the feeling of warmth in his hand and forearm. She eventually let go though, after a couple seconds that definitely felt like they lasted longer, leaving a dissipating afterburn.

“Maybe we should also prepare some lunch. Who’s in?” Andrés asked the group.

\---

After they had eaten, they went to the concert area to spend the rest of the day there. Andrés also wanted to meet up with the people that had joined them yesterday like they had agreed upon the day before.

To Sergio’s disappointment, on the second day of the festival artists performed on multiple stages. So, unlike yesterday it wasn’t quite as easy to focus as they heard music from many different sources: from the stage they were watching and from the stage at the other end of the site. In addition, their group was significantly bigger than it had been yesterday which made for more conversations that had to be ignored in order to focus on the music.

Luckily, Raquel had stayed close to him, and he once again lost himself in her dancing. He forgot about the mash up of music and chatter around them. And also luckily, Raquel seemed too absorbed into dancing to notice Sergio staring again.

“Hey Sergio! Earth to Sergio! Could you please?” Martín tried to get his attention by bumping his hip into Sergio’s.

“Oh, he did that yesterday, too. Spaced out.” Sergio heard Bogotá answer.

“What?” Sergio asked with a slight delay but then noticed people vigorously dancing close to their group.

“Could you please move over? I don’t wanna be bumped into anymore.” Martín tried again and with success this time.

Sergio moved over, watching the group in question, wondering what they were even doing.

“I really don’t like these kinda people. Ruining it for everyone around.”

Sergio nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, you seemed pretty invested before.” Martín shot him a grin.

“What? What do you mean?”

“You seemed…lost in thought. Thoughts about someone. Am I right?”

“What, no!” Sergio nervously pushed his glasses up his nose.

“Uhuh.” Martín answered with a huff and a quick raise of his eyebrows.

As he tried to think of a response, Sergio started to notice the noises all around him again. The music from the stage in front of them, and also from behind them, the group next to them singing along to the song and clapping loudly. Members of their own group were also chatting, laughing and singing along.

He started to notice the people from behind pressing up against him and even pushing him occasionally which made him bump into his brother in front of him. Andrés didn’t mind but it made Sergio uncomfortable. He also noticed the warm afternoon sun shining down on them, making the heat inside the crowd almost unbearable. And he noticed that while he didn’t bring his usual wardrobe consisting of suits, the long pants he insisted on bringing instead also didn’t help.

He started to perceive even stronger how everyone around him was moving in some way; no one stood still. There were many people dancing, to his right, in his own group, in front of them. Some people were also pushing their way through the crowd, sometimes holding up their and their friends’ drinks. Obviously making those around them move even more as they tried to make room for them to pass. And additionally, Sergio saw the performance on stage.

He started to perceive various smells. There was obviously the prominent smell of beer from many people around him drinking beer, some of them even spilling some of it, so it smelled from the ground, too, and coming from the booths selling it on the sides of the concert area. And he sensed the smell of the food booths. And not only were the people around him noisy and didn’t stand still but they were also sweaty which was impossible for him to not smell at that moment.

He suddenly felt tense and the only thing on his mind was _escape_. He felt like he would explode if he didn’t get out of there and to a low-stimulus environment. It was impossible to calm down like he normally would, by making origami. He had no paper. Pacing helped calming himself down as well under normal circumstances. But that was impossible in the middle of a crowd as well. It was too dense. And he wasn’t able to filter out any sensations without either coping mechanism. So he had to get out of there.

“Hey, are you okay?” Martín noticed Sergio’s sudden change of mood.

“I…gotta go.” Sergio looked at him with a furrowed brow. “To the tent.”

“Wait, I’m coming with you.” Raquel touched his arm as he was about to turn around, adding another sensation. But maybe it was a good thing he wouldn’t have to go alone.

The walk back to Sergio’s camp was quiet. Neither talked. Sergio tried to pull himself together and calm down a bit and Raquel sensed something was stressing him out but didn’t want to add to the stress. That’s why she didn’t say a word and hoped that just being there, by his side, was lowering the stress.

Reaching the camp and sitting down in the camping chair, Sergio exhaled and was able to finally relax a bit. As most of the festival guests were currently at the concert area, it was a little bit quieter on the camping site than usual, almost like this morning during his walk which added to the relaxation.

“So, what happened back there?” Raquel asked after seeing him considerably relax.

“Well, I don’t really know. I sometimes get this. Like, everything just gets too intense and I end up feeling like I’m about to explode. It feels like every move of every person and every single sound and everything is happening in my brain at once.” He exhaled audibly. “And normally I would distract myself but I couldn’t do that now, back there.”

“What do you do to distract yourself?”

“I uhm…” He chuckled slightly embarrassed. “I do origami. That calms me down. And pacing sometimes helps.”

“Origami? Cool.” Raquel smiled.

_Cool?_

Sergio felt his heart flutter at her acceptance and the sincerity in her voice. He had laid his heart open, made himself vulnerable. Breaking every restraint he would have discussion this topic with any other person he had ever encountered. He didn’t quite understand what was happening.

“Sounds like an overload of sensory stimuli.” She said, breaking his train of thought.

“Yeah. Feels like it.”

“Do you…Do social interactions trouble you?”

“What?” He responded, slowly catching up to her changing the topic. But quickly remembering the thoughts he had just had. “Uh, yes, I’d say so. I normally would never talk to anyone about these kinds of things. I prefer to keep to myself and I guess I should maybe open up to others more.”

“I see. How about social cues?”

“Cues?”

She chuckled sympathetically at his sincere question. “Have you ever got tested for autism?”

“You think I have autism?” Sergio furrowed his brow. “Aren’t these kids who throw fits in public or are savants and live in their own world autistic? I’m not like that.”

Raquel nodded humming. “Well, autistic people can be that. But this, especially savantism, is how the media mostly portrays them. Creating a cliché that doesn’t cover _all_ autistic people. See, it’s a spectrum. Which means that sure, there’re the ones that show mutism, never learn to talk, throw fits due to sensory overload and then there are the ones that show great knowledge and expertise in one specific field as well and maybe from time to time seem detached from society and the world it has created. But that’s not exhaustive. There are also people that fall in between those extremes. The critical characteristics that are a given, in varying degree though, are difficulties with social interaction and communication and some kind of repetitive or limited behavior and interests or something like rituals.”

“What is repetitive behavior? I don’t think I have that.”

“Well, it can be repetitively stacking things or lining things up. But it can also be routines that must be followed, like always eating food in a specific order. And restricted interests could be to fixate on one specific field and not showing interest in much else.”

“Okay. Maybe it fits…”

“Oh.” She laughed and pointed her finger at Sergio. “As for social interaction problems, I think you totally missed the cues and underlying plea I tried to send you yesterday after the concert.”

He furrowed his brows in question.

“Yes, I…I tried to get you to ask me to hang out after the concert or just anything to stay in touch, for that matter. And I suppose you didn’t get the cues, right?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s like that…I normally think about every situation prior to it, plan them, plan the conversation I’ll have. And this yesterday was just so unexpected, I didn’t have a plan.”

“You script.” Raquel squinted. “To anticipate communication and also social cues.”

“Yeah, I tend to think about the possible directions where a dialogue could go and what to say in either case. It gives me a sense of security.”

“Security to not miss anything people without difficulties in social interaction would get intuitively. Like change in tone or facial expression.” She said sympathetically.

He nodded slowly.

“See, I really think you might be autistic, somewhere on the spectrum but this isn’t a proper diagnosis. There are tests, so maybe you should go take one. Only if you want, of course, not everything necessarily needs a label.”

“Take a test with you?” Sergio answered, eyebrows raised and smirking.

“Gladly.” She said softly, smiled kindly and let her eyes remain on his until he broke the eye contact and looked down. “Thank you for trusting me.” She laid her hand on top of his and he looked back up and they shared another lingering eye contact, both smiling tenderly at each other.

\---

Later that night they found themselves in Raquel’s camp after Martín and Andrés had sug-gested they should come with them and party with the rest of their newly acquired group at the camp of the three women. The rest of them were already there when the four of them arrived. Marseille and Bogotá getting to know Ágata and Daniel, Silene and Aníbal a bit distant from the rest, laughing loudly. And Mónica and Laura were animatedly talking to Mirko. The four new arrivals chose to sit around the lighted grill, to enjoy each other’s company and to recap the events of the day.

“Hey, we’re gonna play a game. You want in?” Ágata approached them after a while.

“What game?” Sergio asked.

“Stack cup. It’s a drinking game. We’re standing around a table, two get a cup and ball each, trying to get the ball into the cup after one hit on the table. If they manage, it’s the next person’s turn. If the two cups end up in front of one person, they have to empty one of the cups in the middle of the table and add it to the stack making it harder to get the ball into the cup.” Ágata explained.

“Ah, no, I’m out.”

“Oh come onnn, Sergio. Don’t be a spoilsport!” Andrés objected.

“You know I don’t like to drink much.”

“Well, if you’re good and quick enough you won’t have to.” Andrés gestured invitingly with a pleading smile.

“Fine. One round.” Sergio chuckled at the ridiculousness of his brother.

While Sergio managed to keep his promise to only play one round, he didn’t do the best job at being quick and therefore drank multiple cups, eventually losing count of how much he had actually drunk.

“Ay! Everything’s spinning around.” He sat down after a while, holding his forehead with both hands. “And I’m so tired.”

“Drunk is what you are.” Andrés laughed at him.

“Nooo. I only drank –” He started counting with his fingers but lost track quickly. “Ow, I don’t know.” He said pouting. “I wanna shleep.”

“Okay, hermanito. But I’m bringing you to your tent.”

He helped Sergio stand up and kept his arm around his waist as they started leaving the camp. Not even reaching the next row of tents, Sergio stumbled over his own feet, bringing himself and Andrés down. Sergio started to giggle while Andrés tried and failed to get them both back up. He was annoyed already. This wouldn’t work. He couldn’t get him back all the way to their camp alone, not like this.

“Let me help you.” Raquel appeared by Sergio’s side, putting her arm around Sergio’s waist as well.

Together they were able to get back up and gain stability.

Sergio then leaned to Raquel and mumbled: “You shmell good.”

She started to laugh not knowing what else to do or respond and Andrés and even Sergio chimed in. But she couldn’t prevent her cheeks from warming up at the compliment.

“I can’t take him back to our camp alone. Would you mind helping me?” Andrés asked her, eventually bringing her back to the here and now.

“If you want to, he can stay here for the night. I have some space and a spare sleeping bag in my tent.” Raquel suggested.

“This is a good idea. And I bet he’d like that very much.” Andrés agreed with a smug smile.

So, they went the short way to Raquel’s tent and tucked Sergio in into the sleeping bag. After saying goodbye, Raquel went to join Sergio in her tent and crawled into her own sleeping bag, facing him.

“You’re so pretty.” Sergio suddenly said and closed his eyes.

Raquel felt her chest warm up and a smile crept on her lips. “And you’re cute.” She slightly brushed his cheek with her fingertips.

Sergio smiled, eyes still closed and fell asleep soon after. Meanwhile Raquel lied awake a bit longer, just watching him sleep and looking content. God, he really was cute!


	3. What are you doing to me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left kudos, commented and read this story so far!
> 
> Special thanks to Beata for helping me make this chapter what it is now!
> 
> I hope you will all enjoy this new chapter :) Sorry that it took me so long to update but I really had my hands full with my thesis. But I'll be able to finally hand that one in in the next days, so yay!

As the last day of the festival arrived, Sergio woke up due to a rustling sound right next to him. Still drowsy, he stretched and yawned. Still, he was surprisingly well rested, considering he had once again slept in a tent on the hard ground. When he slowly opened his eyes, the relaxation from moments ago vanished to be replaced by nervousness and disorientation. His heart started racing, his mouth went dry and he froze in his movements.

Neither was he in his own tent nor could he remember falling asleep in this one. But even more concerning was the fact that he wasn’t alone. Someone was lying beside him. In another sleeping bag, with their back turned to him. That’s when the memories from last night kicked in.

He suddenly remembered playing a drinking game. And he remembered drinking too much in the process. He remembered Andrés trying to bring him back to his tent and failing. He remembered Raquel – wait, did he really go as far as saying she smelled good?! Oh no. Who says that? Especially upon just meeting and while just getting to know someone? Shit. He then remembered how he got to sleep in this tent. Her tent. She was the person lying beside him! His last memory was blurry, but he still could make out himself complimenting her on being pretty. _You’re so pretty?!_ Please no. Not that his drunk self was telling lies. She really was beautiful. But it’s got to be against every social code to say that as early as he did. And probably not very charming coming from a drunk.

Raquel moved. Her sleeping bag rustled again. As she stilled, her back was exposed to Sergio, her sleeping bag only reaching her side. The cover was now perfectly hugging and highlighting her curves. Her shirt, having moved up from turning around, was exposing the small of her back ever so slightly. Feeling a tingling in his stomach at the sight of just a little bit of her skin, he immediately turned on his back, staring up to the ceiling. He exhaled shakingly. What was happening?

When he turned his head to see if she was still sleeping, she rolled over again. This time facing him. She raised her hands to her closed eyelids and rubbed them. Then she opened her eyes, looking in Sergio’s direction. With her eyelids still halfway closed, she shot him a small smile.

“Morning,” she mumbled.

Sergio gazed at her for a short moment before clearing his throat and answering. “G-good morning,” he stuttered.

“How did you sleep?”

“Eh, surprisingly well. I mean considering…everything.”

“Like getting drunk and not even making it back to your own tent?” She asked teasingly.

Crap, she remembered everything, didn’t she? Well, why wouldn’t she? Unlike himself, she didn’t get drunk yesterday.

“Yeah. That,” he finally answered after a few seconds.

Raquel chuckled. “Happens to the best.” She brushed the last of her sleeping bag off her. “It’s hot in here.”

Taken aback by the sight of her bare legs as she was only wearing shorts, Sergio could just nod in affirmation.

“Definitely one of the worst parts of sleeping in a tent.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, finding his voice again.

“My shirt’s soaked. I need to change.” Raquel leaned over to her bag, fishing out a clean shirt.

“I’ll wait outside,” Sergio quickly responded, already getting out of his own sleeping bag.

“It’s fine.” She shook her head slightly.

“Ok,” he answered at a loss of other words, perplexed by her easiness.

When he registered her starting to get off her shirt though, he turned around, giving her as much privacy as possible in the small tent. The feature of a small tent, however, was definitely that he could hear her change. So, after a while, he could hear her putting something into her bag, probably the dirty shirt. Apparently the coast was clear. Or so he thought.

But his ears must have tricked him. Because turning back to her, he saw her just pulling down the shirt over her breasts and letting it drop down. The sight sent a shiver down his spine.

He cleared his throat that had suddenly gone very dry. “I thought you were done.” For a moment he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her stomach that seconds ago had been bare. But the afterimage made his breath hitch. Letting his eyes travel up her body to her eyes slowly, he tried to snap himself out of these inappropriate feelings. “I’m sorry.” He wasn’t able to push away the reactions she evoked for long though. A tingling feeling spread in his stomach when he reached her eyes with his. Hers had gone big with a realization, her eyebrows slightly raised. He had definitely been staring at her exposed skin. And he was…aroused? Was that really arousal showing in his gaze? Was he mirroring her own feelings?

“Don’t be,” she responded when they made eye contact, slowly licking her lips and biting her bottom lip.

As Sergio looked down to her lips, he swallowed nervously and saw Raquel’s chest heaving and lowering rapidly. What he couldn’t see was the warmth that steadily spread in her chest the longer he fixated his eyes on her lips.

Raquel suddenly shuffled closer to him, sitting on her ankles and right in between Sergio’s crossed legs, her knees almost touching his shins. After a quick glance down to his lips and up his eyes again, she leaned in, closed the distance and placed a short peck on his lips. When she pulled back and sat on her heels again, the air was thick with tension. She looked longingly into Sergio’s eyes. They reflected the same desire for more that she felt herself. So she captured his lips again in a soft kiss.

She tenderly put her right hand on his cheek, the left hand stabilizing her on the ground between his legs, dangerously close to his right thigh. She began to stroke his cheek, running her hand over his beard up to his neck, where she held on to his hair. At the same time she opened her mouth ever so slightly, deepening their kiss. Sergio responded by licking her bottom lip, asking permission to explore her mouth. It was gladly granted, as he sensed the corners of Raquel’s lips turn upwards. Sergio’s tongue explored her mouth fervently, meeting her tongue which shot flames through his whole body and straight to his crotch.

Getting bold, Sergio let his hands wander. From his knees they slid over to her bare thighs. From her thighs they slid over her hips to her butt. Raquel let out a sigh into the kiss at his touch. He pulled her closer, and on his lap, subconsciously pressing their groins together, their bodies finally melting into each other.

Raquel circled her legs around his hips, her ankles locking behind his back, bringing their bodies impossibly close. Putting her arms around his broad shoulders, she was holding onto him for dear life.

Sergio ran his right hand through her hair, holding her head gently in place. Their tongues twirled around each other, both sighing from pleasure into the space between their lips. They held each other as close as possible, only two layers of clothes separating their bodies from touching, brimming with arousal. Raquel couldn’t suppress a moan.

“’Quel?” Someone asked from outside the tent. Raquel instantly identified the voice as Mónica’s.

Sergio stopped kissing her. As he started to retreat though, Raquel heightened the pressure on the back of his head, holding him in place. She didn’t want this to end and tried to ignore her best friend outside. Maybe she would think she was still asleep and let it go.

“Raquel, could you come outside, please?”

Reluctantly, Raquel eventually stopped the kiss and leaned her forehead on Sergio’s.

After catching her breath, she asked “What is it?”

“Can you please come outside? I need your help.”

Sergio exhaled audibly; lips still parted. Raquel looked him in the eyes. His pupils were dilated in lust, his irises barely visible. And he was still trying to catch his breath. So Raquel raised her hand to his check, stroking his beard in an attempt to soothe him.

“Can’t you ask someone else?” Raquel asked Mónica.

“No.”

Raquel gently caressed Sergio’s left hand that had come to a halt on her thigh just seconds ago. Mouthing “sorry”, she got up and reluctantly left him to join her friend in front of the tent.

“What is it?” Raquel asked her friend as she stood up after crawling out of the tent.

“Can we talk?” Mónica didn’t wait for an answer but instead took Raquel by her arm and led her to the free path between the camps.

She motioned for them to take a walk, away from their camp.

“Raquel, cariño, are you really sure about this? You barely know him.” Raquel looked at Mónica, blinking and catching up on the fact that her friend seemed to have noticed that something was going on between her and Sergio. She looked at Mónica, her brow furrowed in question.

“Yeah, you weren’t exactly quiet just now. You know tents aren’t soundproof, right?” She continued while Raquel blushed. “Besides, it was pretty obvious from the get-go.” Mónica scoffed at Raquel’s startled expression. “But don’t you think you should slow down and get to know each other first? You know what happened with Alberto.”

The mention of her ex sobered Raquel up instantly. She nodded. Mónica was right. She had a tendency to fall quick for someone. And then hit the ground, hard, as they turned out to be different than she initially thought. She had the tendency to get her judgment clouded by affection and initial attraction. And this so far had always led to bad decisions and to trusting the wrong people. To trusting people that never deserved her trust in the first place.

But she also knew what she felt.

“You weren’t there just yet. In my position. This feels different…special. He is.”

“Oh, Raquel. Don’t you always think that? It’s easy for them to be kind, charming, even funny at the start. But if you get to know them, it was all just façade. But by then you’re already in too deep and you get hurt.”

Raquel didn’t say a word. She looked on the ground, thinking about Mónica’s words.

“I mean, maybe you are right, and Sergio is different. But he’s still a stranger to you at this point. And he could be anyone. I just want you to be safe and you know that there are a lot of bad apples out there who could be dangerous for you. So, you've got to watch out for yourself. As much as it sucks to be on guard out of their fault.” Mónica paused for a moment. “For all you know he could be a master bank-robber.” She tried to cheer her friend up.

“But we only have today left.” Raquel interjected thoughtfully. “I don’t want to _not_ experience this.”

“I’m not saying walk away. I’m saying, get to know him. Get to know him today, exchange contacts. Get to know him after the festival.” She shrugged. “The end of the festival doesn’t have to be the end of this. Whatever this could be. But it isn’t worth getting hurt for.”

Raquel pondered on Mónica’s arguments. She could be right. What if she got hurt by rushing into this? She wasn’t sure if she could deal with that. Not again. Not so soon. Shitty men weren’t worth jeopardizing her health for. And at this point she really didn’t know what kind of man Sergio was. But on the other hand, everything in her told her that he was different. That he wouldn’t hurt her in the first place. So why not use every minute they had to the fullest?

“I get what you’re saying.” Raquel grimaced. “But after being scared to trust my gut since you-know-who, this is actually the first time I’m rather confident that the good feeling I have about this, is right. I’m not questioning the feeling this time.”

Mónica looked back at her with watering eyes, happy for her best friend. “I believe you, cariño. It must be an awesome feeling!”

“It is! I feel…like the walls I’ve built around me are starting to crumble. And maybe I’m finally, you know, able to heal fully. And this just after two day. It’s unbelievable.”

“Wow! I’m happy for you. And I’m hoping this can really be something great.” Mónica touched her friend’s forearm in reassurance. “What did actually happen between you two?”

Raquel chuckled. “Well, we met on the first day.”

“Really? I thought you met yesterday at that party with, what’s his name? Andrés?”

“We met there again, yes. And talked. But on the first day I was at a concert alone, you were sleeping, Laura didn’t want to come. So I went alone. And I was standing behind one of those tall guys and couldn’t see anything. That guy yelled at me for asking to change places with him. Such an idiot. But Sergio was right next to him and he –,“ Raquel smiled at the memory, “he eventually stopped the guy from continuing to lament. And he let me stand before him then. He was so gentle, right from the start.”

Mónica just smiled at her, urging her on.

“That’s what did it for me. His gentleness. That’s maybe why I have a good feeling about this, you know. I didn’t need his help, but it was so nice he offered it anyway.”

“What happened after the concert?”

“Well, nothing. I tried to get him to ask me to meet again or my number. But he didn’t get my cues. And I just thought that maybe he wasn’t interested in getting to know me and didn’t want to pressure him. So I let him be and went my way. Sure, I thought about him that evening but brushed the thought off after a while. I had barely met him after all.”

“But you met again yesterday?”

“Exactly.” Raquel laughed shyly. “We talked for the first time and I finally learned his name. After we left the concert, we had such a good talk. And you know the rest that happened yesterday.”

“Well, except for what happened in the tent.” Mónica smirked.

Raquel laughed at her friend’s bluntness. “Not much happened yesterday. He was so out of it that he fell asleep pretty quick. Guess you saw that. Well, nothing happened except for him complimenting me and I couldn’t stop myself from telling him…that he’s cute.” Raquel blushed slightly at the memory.

“Raquel!” Mónica responded chuckling.

“It’s true! But this morning, there was something else. I changed my shirt and apparently he turned around too early, so he saw –“

“You changed while he was still there?!”

“Yeah. He wanted to wait outside. But I…kinda didn’t mind?” Raquel shrugged.

Mónica shook her head laughing. “And then?”

“The mood changed after he saw me basically half naked. And we kissed.”

“You kissed? Just like that?”

“You should have been there, it was so…hot.” Raquel shortly shook her head. “Or actually, I wouldn’t have wanted you there, I mean I love you but…you know what I mean.”

“I get it. And you deserve it. So much. But please promise me to be careful if you want this to go further. It wouldn’t matter if it were just a fling obviously but I don’t think it is? So please be careful.”

“I will be.”

“Talk to him, I think slowing down a little bit might be the best, don’t you?”

“But what if he doesn’t understand it?”

“Well, that’s his loss then.”

Despite knowing that he truly wasn’t worth it if he didn’t understand her arguments and respected her decision, she was still nervous to talk to him. She desperately wanted to explore what was happening between them. After all, she felt it was different. But would she be able to get to the bottom of it or would Sergio retreat because of the baggage she carried?

\---

After Raquel had left him, Sergio caught his breath. His pounding heart had slowed down. But he could still taste Raquel on his lips. He could still feel her lips on his, her hand on his neck, her legs around his body. He touched his lips with his fingertips, memorizing how her lips had felt kissing him. That kiss was breathtaking, her touches and caresses bringing out a side of him he didn’t even know existed.

What did just happen? What was it with her? They had only just met two days ago, and barely at that. They basically knew each other since yesterday. And yet, she had cast a spell on him already.

He had never felt like this before. Let alone in such a short time. Sure, he had some experience, having had two girlfriends before. But it had been different with them. He had liked them, yes. As friends. Every physical experience with them had felt more like a learning session of anatomy than what it was being portrayed as everywhere around him. He was curious after all. Curious about the how and why of the female body in this case.

However, due to his lack of emotional involvement, the relationships hadn’t lasted long. With Raquel though, the emotional involvement seemed like no problem at all. And that was what blew his mind. He had instantly been attracted to her and the last minutes had felt like heaven. This was the new for him. Another unfamiliar feeling was that he wanted to continue where they had left off as soon as she comes back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would appreaciate feedback! :)
> 
> Next on: What exactly happened with Alberto? How will Sergio take it that Raquel wants to slow down a bit?


	4. See you soon?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading, commenting and leaving kudos! It's all highly appreciated! :)
> 
> I'm sorry that this chapter took a bit again. The last two weeks were pretty stressful again but now I (basically - don't have my diploma and grade of thesis yet buuut) finally graduated from uni with a bachelors degree in psychology :) And I moved back to my mom for a while, until I'm sure at which uni I'll get to do my masters.  
> But anyway, amidst all the stress this chapter is finally finished and I so hope you like it! :)
> 
> This chapter wouldn't be what it is again without your help, Beata, so thank you so much for that! <3
> 
> Potential TRIGGER WARNING: Emotional and physical abuse are described in retrospect

Sergio’s heart told him he wanted this. It told him he wanted more of what had just happened between him and Raquel. But the more he recovered from making out with her, the more his brain had a say in the evaluation of the situation. And with that, he started to doubt. He questioned Raquel’s intentions. Was he just a fling to her? He had no interest in one-night stands and the sort. Never had. And he wasn’t going to change that. Besides, he didn’t feel like he even had enough experience for that. Sure, he was no virgin but also far from being an expert in the sexual department. He had knowledge, yes. He had done his research. But practice was an entirely different chapter. So even if he had any interest in having a fling with someone, which he hadn’t, he wouldn’t feel comfortable with it due to inexperience.

And as he had more experience trusting his brain, he pondered this situation now too. He wasn’t comfortable rushing into this without picking up some skills along the way. Slowly learning and mastering things.

That’s why he came to the conclusion he had to take things slower than they appeared to happen as of now. He had to find out what Raquel’s stance was on this. Whether he was just a fling to her or…if it could be more. And confusingly enough, a growing voice in him told him he wanted it to be more. Something in him seemed to agree with Andrés for once.

\---

_“Come on, Sergio. Live a little,” Andrés teased._

_Sergio shook his head curtly._

_“You can’t live on books only. You need to enjoy your life. You need some love. You need a woman.”_

_“Andrés, no.”_

_“You live without enjoyment. And that’s the only thing that matters after all.”_

_Sergio exhaled exasperatedly. “I don’t want my plans turned upside down by someone else, please.”_

_“Oh, you mean your five-year plan of working hard to graduate and then stick to it and continue working hard for a title? That’s not everything, Sergio!”_

_“It is to me.”_

_“I’m telling you, you’ll regret it. Life isn’t just studying. It’s about enjoyment.”_

\---

For the first time in his life, Sergio experienced what Andrés had been talking about. He wanted to explore the joyous aspects of life as well. He wanted to explore this tingly feeling he got when he was around Raquel. He wanted to explore where this _thing_ they had was headed.

His contemplation was cut short when the zipper of the tent was opened and Raquel entered to join him. He watched her as she crawled through the hole and shuffled on her shins to sit next to him.

Raquel’s forehead was furrowed in what he eventually read as worry. _Why was she worried?_

“Is everything alright with your friend?” He asked her, worried that something had happened.

“What?” Raquel looked at him in confusion. Remembering why she had left him here initially, she added “Oh yeah, yeah, Mónica is fine.” She fixated her gaze on him. “I actually need to talk to you.”

It was Sergio’s turn to look at her confused. “Me? Talk?” His heartbeat sped up.

“Yes.” She pursed her lips, unsure how to get this along to Sergio without hurting him or scaring him away. “Look, first of all, I…this between us…what’s happening…whatever this is. I like it.”

Sergio furrowed his brow, tilted his head slightly to the side and rapidly alternated looking into her left and right eye.

“But…”, she trailed off.

 _Of course there was a but. Wasn’t there always a but?_ Sergio looked down at his hands.

“I don’t know how you feel about this,” she tried again. “But…okay, I’m just gonna say it. I’d like to slow it down.”

Sergio nodded and kept his eyes cast down. Unexpectedly, this definite statement stung him. Immediately after he realized though that she proved to be on the same page as himself with it. But before he could respond, Raquel continued.

“See, my last relationship…didn’t end well. I was even thinking about reporting him. For abuse.” Raquel halted as Sergio lifted his head and looked her straight in the eye. “It started with emotional abuse. He was obsessively controlling me. Wanted to know my location at all times. And I couldn’t seem to make anything right by him. Staying home was wrong, he’d get mad. But going out was wrong as well and he’d get mad at me too." Raquel paused. "And in the end you just accept you’re always wrong, no matter what you do. And it didn’t protect me that I knew perfectly well how abuse worked. I mean I studied it. But as soon as it’s coming from someone you trust so deeply…you don’t see it happen. And so he intruded every aspect of my life. The one I had with him. The one I had with friends. Work too. And obviously he intruded my mind as well, making me believe it was all my fault anyway. It didn’t stop at emotional abuse though which was already enough to paralyze me. No. One day the first slap followed. I had been out with Mónica and some other friends and when I came home, he insisted my skirt had been too short. And he was sure there had been another man I had met instead of my friends. He was so sure I had lied to him. Whatever I said, I couldn’t convince him of the truth. He was in such a rage and my protestations only made it worse. Until he hit me. And brainwashed as I was back then, I tried to cover the bruise the next day for work and excused his behavior. I told myself it was a one-off because I provoked him. But he obviously didn’t stop. Until I hit the rocks and realized that I couldn’t bear it anymore. That’s when I braced myself and left him.” A tear ran down Raquel’s cheek as she finished, her eyes had filled with tears.

“Shit, Raquel! I’m…I’m so sorry you had to go through…through an experience so…” Sergio cut off mid-sentence at a loss of words to describe the pain Raquel must have endured. He took her hand in his, running his thumb over her knuckles in an attempt to soothe her and express his support. “If there’s anything I can do. Get you the phone number of any professional help for these situations or…be your bodyguard with glasses…I’m not a violent man, I’m really not, but I’d beat the shit out of that bastard!”

Raquel exhaled audibly, somehow relieved she had told him everything and that he understood her. She was thankful that he immediately offered his help. She shot him a weak smile. Only talking about what had happened to her and about her ex was exhausting. “This situation is why I want to slow down, Sergio. I need a better basis for _this_ than I had with him. Look, I fell into it way too fast and totally missed getting to know him. Now, I’m not implying you’re the same, for the love of God! To be honest I have such a good feeling about this, believe me! But what I’m saying is that I need to take it slow for my own sake. And not immediately get carried away again but see if it works out first. Start fully healing, you know.” Raquel looked at Sergio hoping he’d get her message and not take it the wrong way.

Sergio nodded slowly, making a hmmm sound. “Vale.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I get you. And well, I actually thought about that as well. Slowing down I mean. I don’t normally do this and might need a bit more time to adjust.”

“I see.” Raquel nodded. “Thanks,” she added in a soft voice.

“Why…I’m sorry for asking, but why didn’t you report him?”

“I tried actually. But they didn’t believe me at the police station. He’s one of them. And very popular at that.”

“Is there no one who can help you with reporting it?”

“Who’s going to help me? I haven’t even told anyone until now besides Mónica. And the police officer of course. But Mónica can’t really help me with reporting it either. I mean I tried it and she doesn’t know anything else I could do either. So who else is going to help me with it?” 

“Me,” Sergio answered quickly. “I mean…I don’t know how but I want to help you.”

Raquel’s eyes filled with tears of emotion. She leaned forward without even thinking about it and captured Sergio’s lips in an affectionate kiss.

\---

They all spent the last day of the festival attending the concerts, enjoying themselves. Andrés had once again invited their new friends to join them. So their group of no less than 13 people was together for the last hours of the festival. Dancing, enjoying the music, talking in between gigs and still getting to know each other more.

Albeit each of them talked to the others for a bit and participated in group discussions, for most of the time Sergio and Raquel were in their own little bubble. They generally kept close to each other during the concert. Raquel stood in front of Sergio, his arms were circling around, his hands resting on her stomach. But considering the density of the crowd there was obviously no other way than standing and being this close to one another. At least that’s what they kept telling themselves. In fact, most of the concerts weren’t even that crowded. The two of them were just drawn to each other and enjoyed their proximity. 

Sergio liked having her soft stomach against his palms and her hands on the back of his hands. He enjoyed constantly smelling her when he inhaled. He enjoyed the light touch of her back on his stomach and chest. He also enjoyed the feelings he felt around her. He couldn’t get enough of the tingling in his chest every time Raquel changed her position brushing against him and every time they locked eyes. He couldn’t get enough of the electric feeling he felt in his hands and forearms each time she touched or caressed his hands and arms. The warmth that spread in his whole body every time she turned around and kissed him passionately was addictive as well. 

Meanwhile, Raquel was still relieved they were on the same page with the pace of the thing they had going on. She enjoyed having Sergio around her, close to her. She enjoyed having his hands on her stomach, being able to kiss him whenever she wanted to. He didn’t try to pressure her into going further than she wanted to, for which she was grateful. And he seemed to be satisfied with the pace as he had also articulated before.

But even if they had agreed on taking it slow, they weren’t able to keep their hands away from each other. Much to the amusement and sometimes embarrassment of their group. Sergio and Raquel couldn’t care less though, too occupied with what happened in their bubble.

Later that day they were all sitting around the fireplace at Sergio’s and the other’s camp. They were drinking, laughing, listening to music, eating the dinner they had made on the barbecue, letting the last evening fade away.

As Sergio and Raquel headed to bed they decided to sleep separately, in line with their agreement, and meet the next morning to say goodbye. Eventually letting go of each other was harder than expected though. They kept kissing and caressing the other’s face until they were able to break off long enough to say good night. They took this opportunity to rip the band-aid off and separated ultimately.

The next morning started quite chaotically as everyone in the camps next to Andrés’s and Sergio’s was packing. And they were packing too. Packing up their tents, barbecues, search-ing for all their belongings and packing them up. So Sergio was busy packing up his tent and stashing his clothes away in his large backpack as well, when Raquel approached him from behind, startling Sergio when she tapped him on the shoulder.

“Oh, sorry, Sergio. Didn’t mean to scare you,” she explained when he turned around.

“Good morning, Raquel,” he answered smiling and leaned in for a quick peck on her lips.

“Morning.” Raquel smiled brightly. “We’re about to leave but I wanted to give you this before we head off.” She held a small slip of paper out to him. “It’s my phone number. Please call me.”

Sergio took the slip from her, lightly brushing her fingers with his in the process. “I will,” he said with a smile that accented his dimples.

“Great. See you soon?”

Sergio nodded, already looking forward to meeting her again.

With a last short kiss Raquel left him alone again.

\---

Two hours later, after storing their tents and backpacks away in the car’s trunk, they were ready to leave. They didn’t get far though before lining up to exit the parking space, stuck in traffic.

“So, I suppose your weekend wasn’t so bad after all, was it, Sergio?” Andrés teased after a while.

Sergio shook his head but couldn’t contain a chuckle and a light blush. “Shut up.”

“It seemed like you had a lot of fun. Am I right, Martín?” he shot the driver a knowing look.

“Definitely,” Martín answered laughing and looked through the rearview mirror at Sergio who shrunk into the seat in embarrassment.

Andrés joined his friend in laughing.

“Okay, all jokes aside. You really were very into Raquel, weren’t you?” Andrés turned in his seat to look at Sergio.

Sergio sighed and nodded with a half-smile.

“I’m really glad you finally enjoyed your life for a bit, hermanito! You needed it!”

“Andrés, I was fine before, I’m telling you.”

“Fine. But fine is just okay. Didn’t you feel _awesome_ these last days?”

Sergio chuckled at Andrés’s stubbornness. “Maybe.”

“Yeah, yeah, you did.” Andrés nodded self-righteously, pursing his lips. “You’re beaming! I’ve never seen you like this before.” He shot Sergio an honest smile. “So, did you ask her for her number to stay in contact?”

“She actually just gave me her number earlier today.”

“Good! You need this, believe me. She seems genuine. And I think she’d do you good.” Andrés turned back to face the road ahead of them.

Andrés went on to recapitulate other aspects of the weekend with Martín. Like which concerts he liked most and why, how great the food was and that it alone was a sufficient reason to come back next year. Martín happily listened to Andrés’s rambling, occasionally looking at him, smiling and sighing, content to just be there beside his best friend. Once in a while he would agree to whatever question Andrés had asked or to whatever statement he sought confirmation for. 

Eventually they exchanged the info they had learned about their new friends. How Mirko had already been to war in his home country Serbia despite being so young, how Daniel was about to take over his dad’s restaurant. Or how Aníbal only seemed to have had eyes for Silene and probably didn’t even register anything that had happened during the weekend if it didn’t concern her.

In the meantime, Sergio contemplated when to call Raquel exactly. He was excited and wanted to text her immediately, but he figured that waiting a day at least was the best way to go. He had seen in movies that there seemed to be a social convention of waiting three days. But he couldn’t wait this long. And wouldn’t that also signal disinterest? But then again, they had agreed on taking it slow. He wasn’t sure but eventually settled for calling her the day after tomorrow.


	5. I'm disappointed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the feedback again :) It's highly appreciated!  
> And thank you so much, Beata! :)

Raquel was disappointed. It was Thursday. The fourth day after the festival. And she still hasn’t heard from Sergio. Monday and Tuesday she had granted him. He was probably busy with work anyway and coming home from a festival on Sunday and going back to work the next day could be stressful. But he definitely could have called by Wednesday. You can’t leave someone you were only getting to know and, especially in the way they did, hanging like this. That was just rude. Besides, all it took was some sign of life, a quick text of his number would have done the job. And wasn’t that finished in a second? This wasn’t too much to ask of him. Really. Maybe she had misread the situation, blinded by her infatuation. And perhaps they hadn’t been on the same page after all. She couldn’t quite believe that though. It had all seemed so genuine.

After ruminating on it for the last three days in addition to working, Raquel decided to take the afternoon off today. She had been seeing patients all morning but there was no appointment scheduled for the afternoon. Normally she would use these openings to catch up on writing expert opinions on the state of her patients. But not today. She could still do that tomorrow or on the weekend. Relatively flexible working hours could be good for something after all.

Today she simply needed a change of scenery. Needed to get her mind off Sergio. And as she couldn’t really concentrate on work instead either, she decided to meet with Mónica.

Right after saying goodbye to her office assistant and leaving her office she drove over to Mónica’s workplace. Raquel went into the doctor’s office where Mónica worked part-time as a receptionist to pick up her friend.

“Hey Mon! Let’s grab some coffee!” Raquel offered with a smile as she rested her elbows on the reception desk. Leaning forward she put her chin on her hands.

“Sure, gladly. Let me just finish up this. I’ll be off in 10.”

“Good, I’ll wait in the waiting room then.”

After Mónica had closed up for the day and had handed over the duty to her colleague from the following shift, they discussed where to go for coffee.

“Daniel told me about their restaurant slash café this weekend. Hanoi. It’s close by and I’ve been wanting to check it out all week. So how about that for coffee?”

“Daniel, uhuh?” Raquel looked at Mónica with eyebrows raised, smirking. “But sure, sounds great! Let’s check it out!”

They took a seat at the second table from the door and Mónica immediately excused herself to say hi to Daniel who was working at the bar. Raquel used the time to observe the restaurant. It was rather small but fairly cozy. Skimped on décor and a tad too dark maybe, but homey, nonetheless. It had a TV on the wall and a couple of plants placed around the entry and TV area. The seats were comfortable and the stools at the bar looked fine too.

Seeing Mónica up at the counter, she figured this wouldn’t be the last time they’d go here for coffee or lunch. Because even with her back turned to Raquel it was obvious that Mónica was animatedly laughing at something Daniel had said. When she turned around to make her way back over to Raquel, she wore a bright smile on her lips.

“I ordered us each a latte macchiato. Hope that’s fine with you.”

Raquel nodded in affirmation. They always ordered the same drink anyway.

They started some small talk about today’s weather but it didn’t take long for Daniel to bring them their order.

“For you, señoritas.” He placed the drinks on their table with a bright smile that definitely matched Mónica’s minutes ago and right now. “Enjoy it. And if there’s anything else I can get you, I’m at your service,” he finished with a wink toward Mónica.

She responded by giggling and Raquel couldn’t remember the last time she had heard her friend giggle. Chuckle, sure, she occasionally did that. But giggle? Not since…they had been teenagers, she assumed.

“What’s happening, Mon?” She asked in a low voice as soon as Daniel was out of earshot.

“I’m not sure,” she answered laughing. “I couldn’t get him out of my head these last days and finally meeting him again…feels so good.”

“I can see that.” Raquel smiled. She could read Mónica like an open book and knew exactly what she was feeling. “I’m happy for you.”

“Anyway, I’ll see what happens. How was _your_ week so far?” Mónica changed the subject as she wasn’t totally sure what exactly was happening herself and wanted to explore it before judging. For now, she let it rest and was more interested in what was going on in her friend’s life. 

“Oh well, same as always. I worked mostly, nothing new there. I called my mom on Tuesday. We actually talked for over an hour.”

Mónica nodded, urging her on.

“She seems okay. She was mainly excited to tell me she’d joined a yoga club. It’s for seniors and the other participants are very nice. She hasn’t had many sessions of it yet though, so she talked about first impressions. I guess some sport will do her good anyway. And meeting new people, especially considering her age, is a really great thing too.” Raquel’s expression suddenly darkened, a frown appearing on her face. “But she was kinda confused as well. I asked for a recipe she used to cook. Basque omelette. I wanted to cook it on Sunday…or Saturday, and I used to eat it at home a couple of times. My Mom does it best obviously.” She chuckled a bit. “Anyway. So I asked her for the recipe but she couldn’t even remember ever cooking it.”

“Maybe it was just a slip up,” Mónica tried to rationalize it.

“Could be. But she normally is so attentive, you know her. And especially with food she’s thorough, knows most of her recipes by heart. And completely forgetting ever having cooked a meal…Doesn’t sound like her at all.”

Mónica looked right at her, eyebrows raised in concern. She didn’t expect her friend’s mother to start forgetting such apparently rather salient things at her age already.

“Oh, Raquel. How are you doing?” The corners of her mouth turned slightly downward.

“I’m worried. I suppose I gotta keep an eye on her now.”

“Yeah. I don’t know if I can help in any way but if there is something I can do, hit me up right away. But you know you can always do that.”

Raquel smiled gratefully. “Thanks.”

“Everything fine here, señoritas?” Daniel chirped. They hadn’t even noticed him approach-ing until he was next to their table.

“Yes, yes, all good,” Mónica beamed at him. Raquel nodded in affirmation.

“Great,” he said smiling before leaving them alone again.

Watching Daniel walk away, Mónica was reminded of the festival and of the fact she wasn’t the only one who had met someone last weekend. “Oh, I didn’t even ask you yet! What’s up with Sergio?” Mónica shot her friend a smile, eager to get an update on Raquel’s love life.

“I don’t know.”

“How, _you don’t know?_ ” Mónica frowned, confused.

Raquel sighed. “He didn’t call.”

Mónica grimaced, sorry for her best friend.

“And I just don’t know why. I mean what we had seemed genuine and you know I had a good feeling about this,” Raquel continued. “Like, did I maybe rush things and scare him away? Even though I clearly stated I wanted to slow things down in fact. But was it maybe still too much, too quickly for him? I don’t get it.” Raquel looked at Mónica, frowning. “Or…was it _too_ slow? Was he in for a fling and as he didn’t get that…,” she trailed off. “But you know…he didn’t seem like the type for fling, if I’m being honest. So what is it?”

\---

In a different part of the metropolis, Sergio was busy googling.

 _Raquel Madrid._ Maybe he would find her like that? He already tried finding her on social media. But without success. She either didn’t have any social media accounts or she used an alias. It surely didn’t help that they hadn’t exchanged last names either. That was in fact the reason he didn’t have much hope of finding her via Google as well.

He was right. She was not to be found.

Sergio had spent the last days wondering how to reach her. Even at work his thoughts often trailed off to this unsettled problem.

Despite having planned to call her two days after the festival, he just couldn’t wait. So he tried it on Monday already. Unsuccessful though.

 _“The number you have dialed has been changed or is not in service.”_ Was all he had heard these past two days as he had repeatedly called the number she had given him.

_+34 649 878934_

He had even lost track of how many times he had called this number by now.

But he couldn’t reach Raquel. Sergio wondered if she had given him a wrong number on purpose. Maybe she didn’t want anything to do with him. It hadn’t seemed like it, it had seemed like there was a mutual interest. But maybe he had misinterpreted the situation. He usually planned social interactions for a reason after all.

Although he would of course respect it if she didn’t want anything to do with him and she had given him a wrong number, he wasn’t sure that was really the case here. Because on the one hand giving someone a random number was not a clear statement. And on the other hand, he didn’t believe it happened on purpose because he knew what he had felt on the weekend. And he was sure it had been mutual as well. She had felt the same, he was certain. That’s why he eventually tried to find her contact online.

 _Raquel Madrid psychotherapist._ Maybe like that?

_Raquel Gonzáles Márquez psicóloga_  
Raquel Murillo Fuentes psicóloga  
Raquel García Sánchez psicóloga 

These Google maps results, accompanied by addresses and links to their websites, definitely sounded more promising than the results to his previous search. So he clicked on the first link and searched for clues what this Raquel looked like. Seeing the menu item _“Sobre mí”_ , he immediately clicked on it. Only to find a photo of a Raquel that wasn’t the one in question. _Joder!_ That would have been too good to be true.

Consequently, he went back to click on the second result. And following the _“Sobre mí”_ option once again, he couldn’t believe his eyes!

 _Raquel Murillo Fuentes._ Such a beautiful name.

A wave of happiness rushed through Sergio. His heartbeat immediately sped up and while looking at the photo the fuzzy feeling from last weekend returned. He felt his chest warm up. While his signature smile that highlighted his dimples appeared on his face, he jumped up and shook his arms in a small dance of joy.

For a moment he enjoyed the bliss.

Until his worries reappeared. He was uncertain if he really should call her office. She had given him her mobile phone number, that was her private life. Calling her at work was maybe intruding on her work life. But if she was really waiting for his call, she might be thinking the worst of him by now. And the only way to make it better was to finally reach out to her. Besides, he also really missed her and couldn’t think of any other way of contacting her.

Although it had only been four days and two hours since the festival, he was so worked up and simply wanted to hear her voice again and to see her.

Because he didn’t want to ignore the way he had felt around her even in the short time they had had and because missing her made him nervous and antsy, he beat his apprehension of coming across as creepy. He called her office.

“Therapy office, Raquel Murillo. Señora Gómez speaking. How may I assist you?”

Sergio was nervous, fidgeted with the pen on the table in front of him. “Uh, yes, hello. I’m Sergio Marquina. I’d like to speak to Raquel, eh, señorita Murillo, please?”

“What is your matter, please? Do you have an appointment?”

“Personal. I mean…I know señorita Murillo privately. Could you please put me through to her?” He tried to clear up the situation.

“I’m sorry but she isn’t available at the moment. You need to call her private phone.”

“Uhm, yeah. But could you maybe pass on to her that I called when she’s back? Please?” Sergio grew desperate. He’d love to call her private number but that was the whole problem.

“Fine. Marquina, it was, right?”

“Eh, Sergio. She’ll recognize me as Sergio. And could I leave my number with you? So she can call me back.”

“Sure.”

After telling the reception assistant his number, asking her to confirm it, just in case, and making sure she’d really pass the message and number on to Raquel, Sergio was relieved. He finally had hope of actually getting to talk to her ever again. If she’ll call back, that is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that not much happened in this one and so sorry you didn't get the anticipated talk/call 🙈 I promise the next chapter is going to be less angsty :D  
> Anyway please do not try the number :D I just typed a random number but maybe it's someones number so hopefully they won't get problems because of this fic (and hopefully the number does not exist in the first place) And if that's your number, let me know so I can change it! :D


	6. Finally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter kinda was a pain in the ass. And idek why. That's why it took me rather long for a rather short chapter. But I'm actually happy with how it turned out. Hope you all like it too :)  
> Big thanks to you, Beata, again! :)

As Raquel had the habit of arriving at the office before Marta, her receptionist, she would occasionally find important notes on her desk. It wasn’t unusual. Occasionally clients would call in her absence and if Marta couldn’t help them herself, she would pass the case on to Raquel who would get on it the next morning. So arriving at her office on Friday, Raquel expected a lot of things on her desk. But finding a post-it with Sergio’s number on it wasn’t one of those. What was that about? Was it Festival-Sergio’s? Why would he even call Marta? Or her office for that matter?

What she knew was that she wasn’t comfortable with it. Approaching her with personal matters in the workplace reminded her of Alberto. He used to do that in his manipulative, intruding way. He regularly called her in the office to check up on her. At first she thought he just cared about her and wanted to make sure that she was fine. But after a while when his calls got more frequent, she had asked him to reduce them. To no avail. Alberto had raged when she came home that day. Had told her that he just wanted her to be safe and so he regularly had to make sure everything was fine wherever she was, including work. When she argued that she didn’t need an escort everywhere she went, he countered that he was just trying to be nice and caring but if she didn’t want that, he could easily just stop caring about her at all. Not seeing a way out of this, Raquel had given in and eventually apologized. Without having done anything wrong. But she had wanted them to stop fighting. As expected, Alberto continued calling her multiple times a day at her office, checking in. And step by step this had helped in taking away her confidence that she could care for herself.

So, was Sergio the same after all? She had in fact told him that Alberto had intruded on her work. He knew it was something she struggled with. And nevertheless, he had called here and not on her private number that she had given him. He seemed to already pass this threshold. Why would he do that? 

On the one hand the similarity to Alberto and that Sergio had ignored her issues with someone overstepping this specific line were red flags to Raquel. She had to be careful with Sergio, Mónica was right. But on the other hand he apparently cared enough for her to reach out. Now, he had called her late but at least he did. And she had truly been waiting for a call all week, unlike with Alberto, she had never waited for his call and had even told him off. However, she had indeed encouraged Sergio to give her a call. And he apparently had done so. If that was his number.

As the last name _Marquina_ that Marta had written down didn’t help her in figuring out if it was Sergio from the festival, Raquel decided that she had to ask Marta for an additional explanation before further rumination. For the time being she had to prepare for a day of meeting with clients.

\--- 

Having slept only for three or four hours the night before, Sergio spent Friday at work in a daze. Despite having had enough time to get a good amount of sleep, he just couldn’t fall asleep. He was nervous. Raquel hadn’t called him back yet. And he wasn’t sure she would do so on Friday. Maybe he had seemed like a creep after all by calling a number she hadn’t even given him. Or she didn’t want to hear from him in the first place.

After a whole day of trying to be at least minimally productive and functioning with an obligatory coffee mug as his constant companion, Sergio couldn’t wait to get home at the end of the workday. He didn’t even take his shoes off before taking out his phone and ordering some take out. There was no way he would be able or willing to stand in the kitchen for about half an hour cooking. Not today. Sergio made a beeline for the couch, slumping down on it after he had quickly taken off his shoes and hung his jacket on the coat hook. He sighed. Finally he could lay down and close his eyes.

But suddenly his phone rang, pulling him out of a light snooze. He did give the delivery service his address, didn’t he? Why would they possibly call again? It was too early for his pizza to arrive.

Sergio slid the button to accept on the unknown number. “Yes?” said Sergio in a hoarse voice.

“Hi. Uhm. Is this you, Sergio?” A low voice answered him.

It instantly hit him that he knew the voice with the way it pronounced his name. His heart skipped a beat. He suddenly was wide awake.

“Hello?” he heard again from the other side of the line.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he noticed he hadn’t even answered yet. “Oh my God, Raquel?!”

A chuckle on the other end of the line. “Hi, Sergio,” she breathed out softly.

“H-hi. You called!” He couldn’t believe it.

Raquel laughed. And he would have dived into that sound if that was possible. “Apparently. Why are you surprised? I gave you my number.”

“But the wrong one. And so I assumed…I assumed it was on purpose and you didn’t want to -”

“What do you mean, the wrong number?” Raquel interrupted him.

“I called the number you gave me but it’s out of service. It doesn’t exist. So I thought about the possibility that you didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I’m sorry if that was the case and I’m bothering you in any way by calling you like this.”

“What? Nonono. I gave you the right number! Because I wanted you to call me!”

Sergio creased his forehead in question. Why didn’t the number work then? His expression soon changed to a more composed one when he caught on the fact that he had been right. This _was_ mutual. She wanted to stay in contact.

“0649 879934. Right?” She continued with reciting her phone number.

“Wait.” He quickly got up from the couch, put down the phone on the coffee table and rushed to his bag to fish out his wallet. Finding the slip of paper carefully stored away in a pocket, he picked up the phone again. “Ok, got it. Could you please repeat it?”

“0649 8799 -”

“89.”

“What?”

“You wrote down 8789 not 8799.”

“No? Did I? Well, that’s…wrong.” Raquel stammered confusedly; she was at a loss of words. How could that have happened?

“So, it wasn’t on purpose?” Sergio broke the silence, suddenly very excited. Maybe it was the right decision to call her office after all!

“Believe me, no.” She couldn’t understand how she had written down a wrong number. “Okay anyway. That’s why you then called my office? How did you even know that number?”

“Eh.”

“Did you stalk me, Sergio?” Raquel asked teasingly.

The humor in her voice bypassed Sergio who got nervous, fidgeting with the blanket that covered his couch. “No.” Well, technically… “I mean, I kind of did. But see, the number didn’t work, and I guess I kind of panicked because I didn’t want this to end before it even started and I, well, I missed you. And I’m so sorry for intruding but I like, searched you on the internet.”

“I’m joking, Sergio. Relax. I’m glad you did what did. But tell me, how did you eventually find me?”

Hearing once again that he didn’t bother her with calling the office, Sergio finally tried to calm down. He let out a sigh and continued talking in an attempt to be somewhat witty. “Well, señorita Murillo,” he smirked and hoped Raquel could hear the playful tone of his voice. “It surely wasn’t easy. You’re hard to find online. I searched on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, you know, all the socials that everyone seems to have. But you don’t? Anyway. I eventually tried searching your name with the word psychotherapist added. Obviously with success.” The corners of his lips turned upwards. He had found her. _He was talking to her._ “That’s a marvelous photo you got up there, by the way.” As soon as the words had come out of his mouth, he regretted them. This was surely considered as stepping over a line.

To his surprise Raquel didn’t mind but was positively flustered instead. At least that was the impression he got as she answered with “That’s sweet,” accompanied by a hearty chuckle.

They continued chatting for half an hour. Talking about what had happened in the past few days, getting to know each other’s jobs in greater detail and reminiscing about their impressions and shared memories from the past weekend. They were shortly interrupted by Sergio’s food being delivered. Raquel prepared a quick dinner and joined him in eating while they resumed their conversation.

When they had finished eating and were about to wrap up the call, an idea crossed Sergio’s mind. Their conversation had been going so smoothly and without mincing one’s words that he had gotten comfortable to say whatever he thought. So before he could fully think about the impact it might have, he already uttered what was on his mind.

“Do you want to repeat this?”

“What?”

“Having dinner together? Or maybe lunch? But in person this time?”

“Are you asking me out?”

Sergio subconsciously pushed his glasses up his nose, starting to get nervous. What if she said no?

“Well, yes. Only if you want to of course.”

“I’d love to.”

“Really?!” Sergio beamed.

“Yes.”

“Okay. How’s tomorrow? At noon?”

“Perfect.”

\---

As soon as they had finished the call, Raquel excitedly texted Mónica. She had to tell her best friend immediately what happened.

>>Mon! You’re not going to believe this!

>>??

>>What’s going on?

>>I got a date tomorrow!

>>Whaaat? With whom? How did this happen? And damn, when??

>>Raqueeel

>>With Sergio

>>We just talked for over 1h

>>He called my office

>>Left his number

>>And well, he asked me out 🥰

>>No way!

>>That’s great news 😍

>>I knooow

A silly smile lingered on her face. So much had happened in just about one hour. She connected with Sergio. Talking with him had felt so easy, she couldn’t even remember the last time a conversation with a guy went so smoothly for her and felt so comfortable. Or actually she could. It was last weekend. With Sergio.

>>Aaah Mon I’m already excited! 😅

>>😂😂

>>Where are you meeting?

>>He didn’t wanna tell me

>>Just said he’s gonna pick me up around noon

>>He’s mysterious about details

>>Any hints?

>>Dress code’s casual, for open-air

>>🤔 Huh, interesting. Keep me posted!

>>Will do

Putting her phone down on her bed, Raquel skimmed through her closet. She wanted to settle the question of what to wear right now. Maybe a shirt and hot pants? She picked out her favorite blouse, almost see-through, flower print, loose fitting, V-neck, sewn-in belt around the elastic waistband that accentuated her slim frame. While searching for fitting shorts, her eyes fell onto the dress she had bought last summer in the end of season sale. She had fallen in love immediately when she had seen it in the store and had been thrilled upon learning they still had one in her size. She didn’t get the chance to wear it yet. But it was perfect for the date! The chiffon, high-waist, dark blue skirt with flower print was tailored asymmetrically, showing off her legs knee-down. Beneath it was a shorter skirt, barely reaching her thigh, exposing the entire length of her legs under good light conditions. The top part of the dress was all-white, had a low-cut V-neck, revealing a good portion of her cleavage but not an obscene amount, classy. What made it special and all the more sexy was the lacy design and the halter-neck straps that intersected on her back and ran together with the front piece at breast height, exposing them slightly when looking at her from behind and revealing her bare back entirely. Fancy, casual, sexy. It really was perfect for a date.

Raquel put it on, adding a beige hat, took a picture in front of her standing mirror, one front and one from her back, and sent them to Mónica.

>>How’s that for casual, open-air? 😅

>>Oh Goddd, Quel! Do you wanna kill him on the spot?!

>>Jk, it’s PERFECT

Laughing at her friend’s excitement and feeling her confidence grow from it, she took off the dress, put it on a hanger and hung it on her mirror. With a smile gracing her lips she then got ready for bed, seeing that it was late already. She had talked with Sergio for quite a bit and looking for the perfect outfit took up some time too. As she dwelled on the memories of the phone call, she couldn’t wait to continue tomorrow where they had left off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this story abides to my plan it's exactly halfway through it at this point, just wanted to let you know how much more to expect :)
> 
> Also again: please don't call either number 😂


	7. It's a surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments, kudos and subscriptions <3 I appreciate it a lot!!  
> And big thanks to Beata and Julia for your amazing help. Un abrazo muy fuerte ;)
> 
> I'm excited to finally share this chapter with you all! And I'm sorry it took me so long, uni had me in its clutches for the last weeks :D That's also why I can't promise to have the next chapter up in under two weeks. I'll be giving my best though.

The next morning had Sergio preoccupied with preparing food. He sliced a cucumber, a bell pepper, a carrot. After adding diced cheese, he boxed it together with the vegetables. Next, he prepared a dip with tomatoes and sheep's milk cheese. He added cream cheese to make it spreadable and seasoned the mixture with garlic and various spices he had in his cabinet and he thought would fit. In the process he was suddenly hit by a question. _What if she was vegan? Or lactose intolerant? Sheep’s cheese had lactose in it, right? Or not?_ Figuring that he was better safe than sorry, he picked up his phone and quickly searched for vegan dips. Apparently you could make a dip without dairy products and use oil and nuts or seeds instead. 

Sergio turned around, away from the counter and rushed to the supply cabinet above the sink. He had to have some nuts. Even though he had not eaten any in a while, he still remembered buying them not long ago. You could not go wrong with having some in your storage. If you did not need them for a meal, you would be on the safe side by keeping them in case of a spontaneous crave for a strength and focus boost. 

And he was not mistaken! Behind the flour he surely found a bag of walnuts.

Following the recipe on his phone that laid beside him on the counter, Sergio mixed the walnuts in the blender and added some olive oil and water to it. He mixed the blend alternating between nuts, oil and water until it was creamy. Too creamy. Almost fluid. So he added another handful of walnuts and followed it up by the last ingredient, red bell pepper. When he was finally satisfied with the mix and busy with putting it into a small box, another question arose. He did not know if Raquel had any allergies. And he knew nuts were a common cause for allergies. 

Just having raw vegetables on a date would probably make for a terrible date. So he had to come up with another alternative. He wanted it to be a great date for her after all. But for the time being he continued with cutting some fruit. He had bought a melon, strawberries and grapes to go with the cheese. Adding two bottles of water, red wine and two glasses carefully wrapped in a kitchen towel, he stored all the boxes away in his bag and put it by the front door.

While he was satisfied with the snacks he had prepared, he still had to get some substantial food. This would also guarantee a good alternative in case she was allergic to nuts. That is why he soon after left his apartment building to go to the bakery down his street.

“Hola, Sergio!”, the young assistant called out on sight in a tone resembling the sound of the small doorbell that rang when he entered the store. 

The warm smell of the pastries and other baked goods suddenly infused on his olfactory receptors. He took a deep breath, inhaling the delicate smell and letting it fill his lungs.

“Buenos días, Sofia,” Sergio answered with a small but kind smile.

“What can I get you today? The usual?”, Sofia beamed at him, eyes shining as she kept up the eye contact.

“Actually, no. I’ll take some bocadillos, please.”

“Oh, sure,” she was surprised to not serve Sergio his usual café, americano of course, and a croissant, both to go, on his way to work or back home. “What topping?”

Sergio looked at the various bocadillos in the showcase. “With jamón and queso manchego.”

“One? And some coffee to go with that?”

“Eh, no. I’ll take four. And yes, café americano, please.”

“Someone’s hungry, huh?”, Sofia teased.

“I’m not eating alone.” 

Sergio did not catch Sofia’s disappointed look but instead let his eyes wander over the display. Bocadillos with only ham, only cheese, croissants, various small pastries, churros. And the perfect addition to the sandwiches! 

“Put six magdalenas on top of that, please.”

When he was back at his apartment a little while later, he meticulously planned the execution of the date. Nothing should be left to chance, he wanted to make it perfect. Finally, after some additional research, he even settled on a Plan B if Raquel had any food intolerances or allergies and would not be able to eat any of the things he had packed. He found a beautiful bar with an amazing sight. Roof top, delicious food with great reviews, in the middle of the garden surrounding the royal palace of which you had a perfect look from the bar. He liked to think about it as his Plan Lisbon. That would certainly make for a great and romantic alternative to his principal plan.

Having settled the food, a specific Plan A and B, this left his outfit for the date as the last thing Sergio had to plan. He knew that he wanted to impress her more than he had been able to do at the festival. This date was for sure a chance to wear some formal clothes. But then again, he did not want to overdress either. So he deliberately chose to drop the suit jacket, suit pants and the tie. Instead he took a white button-up shirt out of his closet, rummaged to find a set of black jeans and picked a black vest to top it off. Smart but not overdressed, he thought. With a quick trip to the bathroom to fix his hair by parting it in a straight line and brushing it, he declared the preparations as done.

And as several minutes later the clock hit 3 p.m., Sergio gathered his things and checked whether he had covered all bases. Bag with vegetables, dips, fruit, bocadillos, magdalenas? Check. Extra bag for drinks, including glasses? Check. Blanket? Check. Sunscreen, just in case? Check. With everything cleared he left to drive over to pick up Raquel.

\---

What a week this one already has been and continued to be! Sergio had not been nervous this many times in such a short time in a while. And especially this many times that he could not soothe his nervousness with origami. But surprisingly, he did not even want to soothe the nervousness this time. It felt good and invigorating.

He felt the same positive nervousness as he walked up to Raquel’s house. While taking a breath and composing himself, he eyed his surroundings. She lived in a five-story building with a yellow house front, white stucco around the vast windows. Each window had a small black, ornate fence in front of it and green shutters. The windows at the corner of the building that were right above the front door were protruding. They were surrounded by thick white frames and black stanchions. The house was on a quiet street. It had a corner shop on the ground floor and across the street was a restaurant that had its shutters down.

Sergio turned to the front door of the building that had the same number on it as the address Raquel had sent him earlier. Scanning the doorbell panel, he searched for _Murillo_ , heart pounding in his throat. There! His heart rate picked up as he pressed the button and waited for a response.

Soon after, the electric strike buzzed him in, and he climbed up the stairs to the second floor. Raquel was already waiting at her apartment door. And his breath would have been knocked out of him even if he had not just basically run up the stairs. This had to be the most beautiful sight his eyes had ever fallen on. Sergio stopped dead in his tracks about two meters from the entrance to Raquel’s apartment. Raquel leaned on her door frame, looking perfect, for a lack of a better word. It was the only expression that came into his mind at that moment. 

She gave him a bright smile that showed off her white teeth and reached up all the way to her eyes. And her eyes stood out to him even more than before, and they had been fairly magnificent and impressive the whole time. But this time it seemed like she had highlighted them even more. It must have been the make-up, Sergio figured. The best part though, was how happy and excited she looked with the small wrinkles around her eyes. 

Her hair was falling on her shoulders in small waves. He did not remember it being as wavy the last time he had seen her, she had probably styled them as well. Now, her face accentuated by her hair would have been reason enough for Sergio to call her look perfect but the dress she wore somehow made it even more perfect. It fit her excellently, showing off her curves in the most flattering way and the color worked miracles in crowning her outfit. The white top of the dress accentuated the tanned skin of her décolleté while the dark blue skirt was the perfect calm contrast to it but nevertheless showed off her likewise tanned legs.

This view caused Sergio’s blood to rush from his brain down South. On its way giving his cheeks a light blush, making his heart beat faster with the seemingly added amount of blood and setting free a horde of butterflies in the pit of his stomach. Before it could rush any lower, he hurried to initiate conversation.

“Wow, you look…,” Sergio cleared his throat as he realized that this was neither the best start to an appropriate conversation nor was it what he had planned to start their day off with. But now as he had begun like this and considering he couldn’t even remember which phrase he had previously practiced for picking up Raquel, he figured he might as well finish the sentence like it had slipped out. “…stunning. You look stunning.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she said, raising one eyebrow, looking him up and down and definitely enjoying the view. “But hello to you too.”

“Right. Yeah. Hi!” In his signature move, Sergio pushed his glasses up his nose, collecting himself. “So, are you ready? Shall we…?” With his right thumb he pointed over his shoulder behind his back.

“Yes! Let me just get my bag,” Raquel turned around and took her beige bag and a beige hat from the dresser beside her front door.

It was only then that Sergio noticed the extent of exposure her dress offered. Her back was completely free, the thin straps holding the dress in place left no room for imagination. He did not realize that he was once again staring until Raquel walked past him and towards the stairs. Then he noticed that not only her entire back was visible because in the well-lit stairway it was also obvious that the skirt was see-through up until, well, up to right under her butt. Sergio could see the entire length of her legs through the skirt.

“You coming?”

Sergio looked up into Raquel’s eyes, gulped the lump in his throat away and slowly nodded in affirmation as he met her at the stair landing. He thought he had, for a short moment, seen Raquel smirking. She had probably seen all through him as he was likely in that moment as see-through as this damned skirt. 

He was fucked. The date had not even really started, and he already didn’t know how he was going to survive this day. And he didn’t know what to do about it because he couldn’t quite pinpoint what was happening, what was happening to him to be exact. He was used to being in check, always and of everything. He was used to being in check of his emotions, of his thought and of his actions and reactions. He had always been able to be in full control over them. His feelings or frankly his urges had never acted up before. He had not even been sure he had the urges everybody else seemed to have and talk about. So what was going on now?

Lost in thought, Sergio barely registered how they got to the ground floor until Raquel opened the front door and turned to him.

“Will you finally tell me now what we’re gonna do?”, she asked him, elbowing his side gently when they exited her apartment building.

“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” Sergio looked at her teasingly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Raquel rolled her eyes playfully. “I don’t like surprises. Please tell me,” she tried again. This time adding a pout in the attempt to sway Sergio.

“Oh my God, stop looking at me like this, please!”, he returned chuckling. He could feel himself almost breaking and spilling his plans.

“Come on, Sergio. How about a hint?”, she tried it with persuasion.

“Fine. I’ve packed some snacks,” he shoved his hands into his pockets, internally debating which other information he could give Raquel that wouldn't spoil the whole surprise for her. “And eh, we’re going North, to the outskirts of Madrid. For starters.”

“Hmm. Are we going hiking?”

“Nope, I’m not telling you more than I already did. Sorry.”

Raquel grunted and pretended to be offended.

“I’m really sorry but I want this to be perfect and surprise you-,“ Sergio tried to appease her. He nervously turned his head only to see her attempting to suppress a grin.

Raquel burst out laughing as she met his gaze and saw the serious worry in his eyes. “I’m kidding you! Let’s go!” With that she started walking down the street, Sergio catching up to her after snapping out of the confusion. _Get a grip, Sergio! She is probably thinking you’re a complete fool by now. As many times as you didn’t get her humor so far._

Walking side by side and enjoying the warm July weather with an occasional cooling breeze, they fell into a surprisingly convenient silence.

“Here we are,” Sergio broke the silence after a while and unlocked the red car next to them which was parallel parked beside the street. While he put his backpack into the trunk, Raquel got into the car.

A forty-five minute drive through the city and to the beginning countryside later, Sergio drove the car up to a parking lot that was surrounded by trees. During the ride they had caught up on each other’s current state. They also exchanged what had happened since last weekend, which wasn’t much to be fair. Most of their time both had spent at work and afterwards both had relaxed at home. And repeated that the next day. A good part of the ride though was spent in comfortable silence accompanied with music while Sergio was driving and Raquel was watching the parts of Madrid they passed by and trying to figure out where they were going.

“Oh, I’ve been here as a kid a couple of times!”, Raquel viewed their surroundings with a childlike sparkle in her eyes. “That’s a cool place!”

After a short smile of acknowledgement from Sergio, they both got out of the car and Sergio took his bags out of the trunk while Raquel stretched her back.

“So we _are_ going hiking? I don’t have the right shoes for that…”

“Well, kind of. But not really? Anyway, I think your shoes are fine for what we’re going to do.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll see. Now, ¡Vamos! I mean if you’re ready?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Raquel started to saunter on the split in her high heeled boots across the parking lot towards the line of trees of El Pardo.

As they were walking on the narrow, tarred path shielded by trees from the warm afternoon sun, they had a spirited conversation about their childhoods. Or rather Raquel happily talked about the summer outings she had enjoyed with her family here in El Pardo. She recounted the fond memories she had made in that area with her late father as the four of them went for an occasional hike. 

Raquel and Sergio passed a dam where she remembered her father instructing Laura and her to collect eucalyptus leaves. He had explained that the leaves were of narrow shape and that they were long and pointy. The leaves were thick, were attached to a thin branch and surrounded by small eucalyptus fruits or flowers. At home they would all together hang the leaves on a long rope in their attic to dry. According to her father, Raquel remembered, they would afterwards use the dry leaves to aid with a cold or a flu in the winter. She could barely recall them ever actually using the leaves except for the one time her mother had made Raquel a hot bath for a particularly persistent cold and added a branch of eucalyptus to it. However, it was impossible for her to say whether it had indeed helped with getting better or not, too much time had passed and too much had happened in the meantime. But the memory of her and her sister running around the area of El Pardo in search for the greenest eucalyptus leaves was a very vivid one.

Sergio contently listened to Raquel reminiscing about her childhood and particularly the memories she had made in this area. He was glad he had picked this spot, seeing that it brought her so much joy to be here again after all these years. And he knew perfectly well how important these good and happy memories with one’s parents were as soon as they were not around anymore. Memories and photos are the only things left of a person when they are gone, even of such valuable persons as beloved parents. This was the hardest lesson he had learned in his life so far, having lost both his parents at a young age.

He suddenly noticed that Raquel was not walking beside him anymore. He stopped in his tracks and turned around to find her by a tree. Wasn’t that eucalyptus? When he walked towards her, he noticed that something in her mood had changed. She was quiet. No trace was left of her animated story telling just moments ago. Her smile had vanished from her face and had left it void of any expression.

“What is it?”, Sergio stopped beside her, resting his hand on her shoulder to bring her back to the here and now.

Raquel blinked a couple of times and lifted her head to look him in the eyes. “I miss him.”

“Your dad?”

“Yes. I’m sorry for ruining the mood…,” talking to Sergio sobered her up.

“No no, I get it.”

“I think the smell…the smell provoked all memories, good and bad, to hit me at once and remembered me of how much I miss him. Smell’s pretty closely tied to memory after all.”

Sergio nodded and murmured in affirmation. “How long is he gone?”

“Fifteen years. But I’m still not over it.”

“Of course you aren’t. That cuts deep. My dad died when I was eight. And it feels like that’s ages ago. But then again it sometimes hurts like it was yesterday. So I get it.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Raquel reached out her arm to put her hand on Sergio’s forearm in support.

“It’s fine. How about you?”

Raquel gave him a soft smile in return. “All good. Now let’s get back to enjoying our date! I’ve been looking forward to it since our call.”

“You did?”, he shot her a hopeful look.

“Sure! Why wouldn’t I? Now, how about we go and collect some eucalyptus leaves on our way to whatever mystery place you’re taking me to? I’d love to dry them once again.”

Soon they went back to the cheery mood they had established before and Raquel occasionally excused herself to fetch some leaves. She had by now built up a collection of branches which she carried in her hands when Sergio stopped in his tracks.

“Here. Let’s sit there in the shades,” he took a beeline towards a row of shade-giving trees and set down his backpack to take out the blanket and stretch it on the ground.

As he proceeded to take out the boxes to lay on the blanket, Raquel joined him next to trees. “A picnic? You prepared a picnic for a first date?”, she smiled fondly at him.

“Yeah, hope you like it. I thought, restaurant dinner date? Anybody can do that. But I didn’t want to give you anybody and I figured this might be more special,” he returned her smile with a nervous one, hoping she was on the same page as him and liked the idea.

“Oh, I love it. This is so sweet!”, she gave Sergio a quick kiss on the cheek, taking him completely by surprise, his eyes growing wide. “So thoughtful.”

Raquel settled down on the blanket while Sergio resumed emptying his two bags.

“So we have veggies, fruit, some dips, bocadillos, magdalenas and drinks,” he went on with unrolling the towels he had covered the glasses with and laid them on the blanket between the two of them and next to the bottles.

“Did you prepare all this?”

“Well, not all of it. I bought the bocadillos and magdalenas,” with a quiet chuckle, Sergio averted his eyes. He opened the boxes of fruit, vegetables, and dips, placing them between their laps. “Do you want a glass of wine?”, he picked up a glass and a bottle of red wine.

“Yeah, sounds great. I can’t believe you even packed wine,” she slightly shook her head while smiling.

“Here,” Sergio passed her a glass filled with the dark red liquid. “Oh, I hope you’re not allergic to anything or have intolerances or something like that. I mean I tried to pack for every eventuality I could think of but maybe I forgot a possibility.”

“Wow, you really thought this through down to the bottom, didn’t you?”

“Of course!”

“Right,” Raquel took a slice of carrot from a box and put it in one of the boxes with a dip. “Mmh! What’s this? It’s delicious.”

\---

A little while later they were both leaning against one of the trees, side by side. The food was eaten up, they had both enjoyed it very much and were now savoring the moment in the warm air and with a beautiful view over the park.

Over their picnic they got to know each other’s job in greater detail than before. Sergio talked about the current project he was invested in. He talked about how working in a team was difficult from time to time. And how it becomes especially difficult when he would arrange a detailed schedule informing about when and how to analyze their current topic of interest and the team then had a meeting. Habitually the meeting would lead to his plan being changed completely. Because more often than not some teammates were behind on their teachings and therefore had to attend to that before having time for the project again. Of not much help either in finishing projects was his own teaching duty. On the one hand he took delight in educating others but on the other hand going through with research projects was the main reason he had chosen academics.

Raquel returned his description by explaining her daily processes at work. She illustrated how an initial clinical interview passes off and what the following sessions look like. She would start a session off by small talk, to set a light mood and form a connection. Then she would animate the client to tell her why they came in, how their family and housing situation looks like and what they do for fun. She would also ask them about their biography and their parents, friends, school and work mates. Eventually she would follow through with a diagnostic interview to narrow down the problem and consequently be able to offer the best help for the client. Meanwhile she would also observe the client’s behavior through all the stages of the initial meetings to get a wider view of the person in front of her.

“I actually had such an initial interview with a patient yesterday.” 

Raquel pushed away from the tree, put her weight on her hands and turned around to lay with her back on the blanket. To Sergio’s surprise she shuffled closer and rested her head on the thigh of his outstretched leg. Startled by this turn, his breath hitched for a moment. He was given only seconds to adjust as Raquel continued with their conversation right after lying down.

“I came into the office to prepare for it, when I found the note from Marta with your number. You totally threw me off yesterday,” she looked up at him. “Wasn’t even gonna call you, you know? I tried the whole day to reason why you would call my office and not simply on private, I gave you the number after all. And quite frankly…it reminded me of my ex. And this made me worry even more as I even told you about him and also him intruding my workspace against my will.”

“Oh God, I’m sorry. Really sorry. I feel bad that I didn’t think about that. I just wanted to reach you and it frustrated me that the number didn’t work. And I didn’t want the chance to pass by in case you didn’t give me the wrong number on purpose. Otherwise I would have backed off, I promise.”

“It’s fine, Sergio. I’m glad you did what you did. And I’m so relieved I decided to call back.”

They locked eyes and Sergio could not help getting lost in her beautiful and expressive ones. Eyes are the window to the soul, as they say. And in that moment, he was hit by the truth this saying bore. He felt Raquel’s soul by the way she looked at him. Contrary to his usual habit of overthinking, he lifted his hand without thinking and lightly brushed it through her hair towards her shoulder. He caressed her left shoulder and arm. She closed her eyes and indulged in the warmth that spread from the touch. A content smile soon graced her face. The happiness it expressed matched the one Sergio himself felt simultaneously. They stayed like this for some minutes until a question arose for Raquel.

“We still haven’t figured out why I gave you a wrong number, haven’t we? I mean I genuinely intended to give you my real. Do you have it with you? Let me see the mistake.”

“Yes. Wait,” Sergio pulled his backpack closer to get his purse out and gave Raquel the slip when he found it in the same spot he had it last time.

Raquel frowned. “It _is_ my number?”

“Qué?”

“I didn’t write it wrong. This is my actual phone number. 0649 879934.”

“Wait. Let me see,” Sergio put his hand on top of hers and turned her hand so he could see the paper. “No, it’s 878. Isn’t it?”

“Ehm. No. Not really,” she shot him a toothy grin and frowned sympathetically. “I guess I was in a hurry. We were about to leave, and I wanted to keep in contact. And I tend to write a bit messy when I’m in a hurry. Apparently my messy 9 tends to look like an 8. Shit.”

They looked at each other for a silent moment before Raquel burst out in laughter at this ridiculous mishap. She never would have imagined that her messy handwriting would lead to almost missing out on this day. Hearing Raquel’s laugh, Sergio could no longer hold in his own laugh.

After their laughter had died out, they went back to the state from before. Sergio leaning against the tree, caressing Raquel’s shoulders and arms, eyes closed, reveling in the happiness he felt. Raquel lying on her back, head still on Sergio’s thigh, also enjoying being touched by Sergio. Her eyes were now open though, silently watching Sergio in his contentment. He looked so peaceful. A good number of minutes passed with them just enjoying the moment like this.

Until Sergio opened his eyes. His plan of the date wasn’t completely followed through yet. It had a second part to it. He had scheduled for them to leave for this part at 8 p.m. And they had been here for some time already, but he didn’t know for how long exactly. He had lost track of time. So he checked his watch. Half past 7. Almost time to go.

“What is it?”, Raquel, who was still watching him intently, asked.

“Nothing.”

“Tell me,” she chuckled.

“Eh. I got another plan for us.”

“Oh, when?”

“Soon but we still have some time left,” Sergio shook his head slightly.

As he went back to relaxing for the time left, so did Raquel. She was curious which cards he still had up his sleeve but figured that he would not reveal his plans to her if she asked. He had not disclosed the picnic to her earlier today either. So for the time being, she accepted to be surprised a second time that day.


	8. Perfect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This date is accidentally getting longer and longer and I'm starting to feel ridiculous writing and posting a story in December that's still so clearly set in summer. So maybe, if this date ever ends :D, we'll get to autumn and, hopefully in time, to winter, too.
> 
> Anyway, thank you all so much for continuing to read this story, comment on it and give kudos <3  
> Special thanks to Beata once again for helping me with the chapter :)<3

Just like on their drive to El Pardo, Raquel was enjoying the view on their way back. But in contrast to their car ride in the early afternoon, she now was much less focused on the road ahead. She would find out eventually where they were going. Besides, she was feeling dizzy from the wine which didn’t make watching moving objects easier. So instead of on the road, she now had her eyes focused on Sergio who was highly concentrated on the road ahead and busy driving. Raquel used the opportunity to stare shamelessly.

He had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, exposing his toned forearms. His white shirt, neatly tucked into his black jeans, was slightly stretched around his upper arms, leaving Raquel both impressed and surprised at how well-toned Sergio looked. She had a hard time reconciling the shy Sergio she had met at the festival with someone who regularly went to the gym full of people. But his training showed.

His jeans fit amazingly. They were so very form fitting which she had noticed already while walking back to the car. She hadn’t been able to refrain entirely from stealing glances then. And neither now she could prevent her gaze from dropping to where the pants flattered his hips and cute butt. Unluckily, she couldn’t catch a clear glance now that they were seated. But her imagination was running wild.

The tight vest around his torso stimulated her intoxicated mind. Raquel wondered how muscular exactly Sergio was. How he looked without the vest, shirt and jeans. Or with tight, short sportswear on, exhausted from working out. Sweaty. She licked her lips at the thought. Nope, that’s enough Raquel! The combination of his woody, arctic smell and the alcohol in her nervous system were incapacitating the rational part of her brain. In this state she could much less than already answer these questions.

Another thing she wasn’t able to figure out about him yet, was the reason why he had such an insecure vibe to him while being so attractive, smart, funny at times and having such an expertise in planning and conducting great dates. Not that she had a high sample size of dates with him yet but the first part of this one had already been very impressive. She, for instance, didn’t expect him to prepare and plan so much beforehand. But he had put a lot of thought into it apparently. Furthermore, he had put together a variety of snacks that left nothing to be desired. He had clearly invested time into planning the date. And if the picnic alone wasn’t evidence enough that he had made an effort of arranging a good time, the fact that there was a second part to the date sure was. And there was no doubt on her side that this part would be any less meticulously planned than the first part.

A familiar voice coming from the speakers tore Raquel out of her thoughts and her eyes away from Sergio.

_I can hear her heart beat for a thousand miles_

_And the heavens open every time she smiles_

“Oh! I love him!”

Sergio turned his head to her, and, for a short moment, they locked eyes before Raquel looked away to turn up the volume on the radio. She sang along to the lines that followed.

_And when I come to her that's where I belong_

_Yet I'm running to her like a river's song_

Sergio’s eyes lingered a second longer on Raquel until he forced himself to focus on the road again. However, he continued attentively listening to her singing along for the length of the song.

“Who was that?”

“You don’t know Van Morrison?!” Raquel looked at him, eyes wide open.

“I have to admit I barely know any musicians, yes,” he lowered his voice. “I don’t listen to popular music.”

“What kind of music do you listen to then?”

“Classical music. Sometimes folk. And I like jazz.”

They turned left and Sergio changed into the second gear. Turning with his small, rather old car in the third gear always felt a bit dangerous because the car always seemed like it was on the verge of upsetting. Sergio preferred to play it safe and slow down, change the gear. Raquel watched his hand move from the steering wheel to the gear and back up while contemplating her next question.

“How come you ended up at the festival then? I mean if you’re not much into music. And you didn’t seem to like the camping and partying part of it either. So what brought you there?”

Sergio scoffed. “Not what. Who.”

He had his eyes fixed on the road. But if he would have looked to his right, he would have seen Raquel frowning with a confused look on her face.

“My brother didn’t take a no for an answer,” he continued, clearing up Raquel’s unspoken question. “He bought not one but two tickets. One for himself obviously but another one for me. Without even consulting me about it. One day I just got a text message asking me to clear this specific weekend. He didn’t say why. When I asked…,” Sergio took a quick glance at Raquel before looking back out front. “Well, you can imagine. I called him and told him no and that I wouldn’t go, not for a million euros.”

“Why did you go anyway?”

“Oh, you’ll know as soon as you get to know Andrés better,” a smile tugged on the corners of Raquel’s mouth, but she let his implication slide. For now. “He’s a pain in the ass when he wants something.”

“Bueno, I should send him a ‘thank you’ card then.”

Sergio looked over to her, creasing his forehead. But when he looked into her eyes and saw small wrinkles around them, straining to hold back the imminent laughter, neither could hold back. They burst out in laughter.

“Fair enough. If you think about it that way. I suppose I should thank him as well,” Sergio answered after regaining his composure enough to form sentences again. His eyes continued to sparkle, and the corners of his mouth were still raised, showing off his dimples. Even from the side this sight was adorable, and Raquel made a mental note to get Sergio laughing every chance she got.

They eventually returned to talking about Andrés. Sergio tried to give Raquel an impression on how Andrés usually gave him a hard time to decline his propositions. He explained that he still hadn’t uncovered the secret to changing Andrés’s mind, even after all these years. Raquel responded by talking about her sister, recalling some childhood stories with her. Like the one time they snuck out together at night to go to a friend’s party and how Laura left the party with some friends in silence, leaving Raquel behind. Raquel had eventually gone home alone in the dark. The next morning Laura still wasn’t back home, and Raquel had to pretend that she didn’t know anything. She surely wouldn’t get herself in trouble just because her sister couldn’t stick to their simple agreement of leaving the party together and being home before anybody noticed.

Time passed by quickly while they were immersed in their conversation and soon enough Sergio slowed down the car, pulled over in front of an empty parking space and parked the car. Looking around before getting out of the car, Raquel identified their surroundings as the Tío Pío park. They were close to her home.

“Are you bringing me home already? Have I finally worn you out?” She teased while they were getting their stuff out of the trunk.

Sergio chuckled and handed her the blanket. He rummaged around his bags to check if the blanket was everything that they needed for the second part. He grabbed a bottle of water and the glasses as well.

It was almost sundown and there was a soft, pleasantly cooling breeze ringing in the evening when they crossed the street towards the park. They could already see the edge of a mowed meadow. Considering the heat of the last weeks, it still was surprisingly green. When they reached the sidewalk that passed by the park, Raquel observed children playing ball at one end of the meadow and what seemed to be their parents sitting at the other end, talking and feasting on a blanket. There were a number of couples walking through the park on the pathways, as well as other families, small and bigger, and groups of teenagers. And some others were sitting on the multiple squared meadows that were separated by the pathways. The park was crowded. But then again, it was Saturday evening after all and this was a great place. A crowd should come to no surprise.

Raquel turned to Sergio and noticed him fidgeting with his sleeves, repeatedly putting his hands in and out of his pockets and pushing up his glasses. He was nervous. And she couldn’t pin down what the reason was. He had been totally calm just moments ago in the car and on their way towards the park. So what had changed? He stared straight ahead and didn’t move. He seemed disconnected from the here and now.

Raquel turned her body towards him and put a hand on his upper arm to zap him out of his thoughts. “Hey, you okay?”

He blinked a couple of times, turned his head to look at Raquel and, focusing on her, nodded slowly. “I just didn’t expect so many people here…”

“It’s Saturday evening. But it’s fine.”

“No, I wanted it to be perfect and this isn’t optimal. The plan was to have privacy.”

“Sergio. It’s alright. Just focus on me. On us,” Raquel took his hands into hers and stroked the backs of his hands to soothe him and get his attention back to her and away from the crowd.

Still not getting any further reaction from Sergio, she let his hands go. “Come on. Let’s sit on the blanket.” She unwrapped the blanket that she was still holding.

After spreading it out in front of them on the grass, she took Sergio’s hand again to pull him down with her. That’s what finally brought him back to Raquel, to the park, to the sunset that was about to start and that he wanted to view with Raquel. The sole reason he followed the picnic up by driving here was to see the sunset and he almost ruined that by overreacting.

“I’m sorry,” Sergio began, tightening the grip on her hand. He rubbed small circles on the back of her hand while looking up into her eyes. He let his gaze rest on hers and shot her a small smile.

Raquel mirrored his smile. Seeing the emotion in his eyes, she felt her own heartbeat because it picked up pace. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before letting her gaze drop down to his lips. They were mostly covered by his beard from a simple, casual glance. But when you looked closer you could see the beautiful shape of them, their pretty light red color and their softness. So soft. And kissable. She slowly looked back up into his eyes. His eyes sparkled with what seemed to be joy and anticipation. At least that’s how Raquel interpreted it. Her heart picked up even more pace and when she saw his mouth opening slightly, she couldn’t hold back anymore.

Raquel leaned her body to him and closed her lips on his in their first kiss since last weekend. And oh, how she had missed it! She poured her happiness into the kiss and raised her hand to his check, deepened the kiss and caressed his smooth beard. She felt him putting his hand at the back of her head, pulling her even closer. He buried his hand in her hair and massaged her scalp tenderly. It felt amazing. Her head was tingling from his touch, making her dizzy. The tingling spread like wildfire all the way to her stomach and chest. Raquel couldn’t say how much time had passed while their lips danced against each other avidly. They eventually had to part in desperate need for air.

Eyes still closed and breathing heavily to catch their breaths, they rested their foreheads together. Hazy from the kiss and from breathing in Sergio’s scent, Raquel opened her eyes to find him already watching her. A smile tugged the corners of her mouth upwards.

After a couple of moments of dwelling on their close proximity and the warm feeling it elicited in both of them, Sergio broke away. He shifted around Raquel, put his legs on either side of her and embraced her from behind. He pulled her in with his hands on her stomach to lean back on his chest. She was more than happy to prop her back and head against his chest and to feel him nuzzling his bearded cheek against hers. When he started to brush his hands lightly over her stomach, she closed her eyes once again and enjoyed the warmth that spread in her belly from his touches. He suddenly gave her a sloppy kiss on her exposed neck and while he drew back slightly, Raquel became light-headed from the continued caress and the tingling that spread from the cooling remnant of his kiss.

“My plan was to watch the sun set with you from here,” he broke the silence in a husky voice.

Raquel responded with a content mhm sound and kept her eyes closed for another second, preserving the dizziness by inhaling Sergio’s masculine scent. “Sounds great. Romantic.”

She opened her eyes to a beautiful view. She saw a few green trees that framed the inclined meadow they had sat down on. Behind the line of trees to her left she could see two rows of brick apartment buildings facing each other, separated by a boulevard surrounded by more fresh green trees. To her right the city extended up to the horizon with a few other apartment buildings in various shapes and colors and of different architecture right next to the park. There were a couple of individual brick apartment buildings, other similar buildings of brown or white color and your basic, flat, gray and ugly office blocks built in the 60s. In the distance she could see Madrid’s television tower sticking out between flatter buildings. It was surrounded by three of the towers that characterized the city’s skyline, Torres Cepsa, de Cristal and Espacio. The park was a great lookout to see the whole extent of Madrid and Raquel wondered why she wasn’t here more often, considering she was living close by.

In addition to the overview of Madrid, you could see the sunset perfectly from here. The sky was partly clouded today. But it was still bright enough to see the sun slowly disappearing behind the mountain chain that surrounded the city at the far horizon. The last rays of the sun spread above the mountains, coloring the sky a fascinating cascade of yellow, orange and red and creating a sharp contrast to the black silhouette at the horizon. The night was closely chasing away the last remnants of the day as the outer rays of the sun were followed by a cascade of light to dark blue. It was slowly growing darker when the orange-colored sky faded away behind the mountains and dark blue took over.

“Amazing,” stated Raquel after the last trace of the day was gone for a few minutes.

For the whole duration of the sunset Sergio hadn’t moved from his place behind Raquel, holding her, his chin on her shoulder, cheek against cheek. It felt too good to leave this pose. Now he lifted his head a bit, gave Raquel a peck on her neck and straightened himself. They stayed like this for a little while longer until tiredness sat in and they raised to their feet in unspoken agreement. After collecting their stuff and putting it into Sergio’s car, they walked through the neighborhood towards Raquel’s home.

While Raquel approached the door of her apartment building, Sergio stopped in his tracks at a distance from the door. Raquel opened the door and turned around, leaning her back against it.

“Are-“

“Thank-“

They both started at once.

“You go,” Raquel gestured towards him with her open hand.

“Thank you for going on a date with me. I had a great time. And I hope it was enjoyable for you as well,” he nudged his glasses. “Is there a chance we could repeat it any time soon?” he finished by burying his hands in his pockets and carefully eyed Raquel.

“This is goodbye? I was hoping we could let the evening die away upstairs,” she confessed.

“Oh,” he sounded surprised, but Raquel couldn’t make out his expression in the dim light of the streetlights.

“So do you want to come upstairs?” she tried.

Sergio hesitated for a second. “If it’s okay with you?”

“I wouldn’t ask otherwise, would I? Come on,” she nodded in an inviting manner and turned around to go inside. Sergio followed.


	9. Beyond the Edge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finallyyyy. I'm sorry for not updating in a month. The holidays didn't turn out as relaxed as I had expected, corona restrictions and all. And planned on using them mostly to write. But I ended up doing a lot of uni work instead. Luckily I have some free time right now for that reason :)
> 
> Regarding the chapter I so hope you all like it. This is my first time writing actual smut - sorry for that spoiler :D - and I'm feeling very self-conscious about publishing it.  
> I'd love your feedback as always :) I read all comments and appreciate them all. But I'm a doofus when it comes to answering them though - I'm sencerely sorry for you beautiful people who left comments on the last chapter and still haven't gotten a reply... I try to get better with that!
> 
> And as always special thanks to Beata <3

After opening her apartment door, Raquel took a beeline to her coat rack to hang up her beige hat and her bag, while Sergio cautiously followed her into the apartment, trying his best to not intrude on her privacy too much. He refrained from looking around in her corridor too blatantly. When he had stepped into her rooms, he closed the door behind himself and remained close to it.

“Do you want something to drink? I have water, obviously. Eh, I think beer. Definitely ice tea and Sangria”, asked Raquel while crouching beside Sergio to take off her shoes.

“Oh, water’s fine, thanks”, he still wouldn’t move from his place by the door.

When she made her way to the first room on the right though, Sergio followed her, even less keen on staying behind alone. He entered her small kitchen at a slow pace and stopped in front of the right end of the counter.

Having acclimatized just a little, he eyed the kitchen. The gray flecked countertop was U-shaped, framing the kitchen. There was a sink in the middle part that was facing the big window with a view of the inner yard. The kitchen contained a number of cabinet units and on the left side of the room it had three additional wall units. All cupboards were bright white, and Sergio could only imagine how often you needed to clean those to look this white at every time.

Raquel fetched two glasses and a bottle of water from her fridge. After filling the glasses and putting the bottle away, she handed one glass to Sergio.

“Come on. Let’s go sit on the couch.”

Sergio quickly took a sip of water and followed Raquel back into the hallway where he got rid of his shoes and walked into the biggest room of her apartment, located opposite the entrance. On the far end of the living room there was a shabby chic style sofa with white and light grey stripes and three white pillows on it. Above it, there hung a painting of a picturesque lake scene. A small coffee table was placed in front of it, the remote for the tv that was standing on a sideboard opposite the sofa, a coffee mug and an open bar of chocolate on it. There was a big window, almost reaching the ground with a French balcony and two bushy plants in front of it. Despite the darkness of the night, the black stanchions that ran in crosses through the glass were visible.

On the closer end of the room stood a dining table with four chairs and a glass cabinet containing various glasses next to it. Her living room was furnished in style but seemed very homey at the same time.

While he still stood by the door, Raquel was already next to the couch. After placing her glass on the coffee table, she took a crumbled blanket from the couch, folded it and hung it over one of the armrests. She sat down, but not before putting a pillow behind her back and looked in Sergio’s direction, smiling invitingly. He finally walked over to the couch as well, took a seat next to her, carefully keeping some distance to not constrict her in any way, and put his glass down as well.

Sitting in her apartment, on her couch, being observed by her, had Sergio overly self-conscious and he didn’t like it one bit. In an attempt to diffuse the onset of nervousness, he picked up his glass again and took a gulp. The coldness of the drink running down his throat soothed his nerves enough to realize the best way out of this was to start a conversation.

“Your couch is comfortable”, he tried and hoped Raquel would know how to follow up this simple statement and save the conversation from coming to nothing.

“Oh, yes. I got it from a flea market actually. Love at first sight”, she answered his hopes. “And great luck that it even fits with the rest of the furniture”, she chuckled quietly. “What’s your flat like? Any furniture with a history or rather an Ikea showroom?”

\---

As the evening progressed, Raquel and Sergio upgraded from water to Sangria. Completely immersed in their unceasingly lively conversation, Sergio agreed on joining her in a drink. And a second one.

“Wait! Didn’t you come here by your car? Where do you live?”, Raquel asked while pouring him a second glass of wine.

 _Shit_.

“You’re right! Oh no.”, Sergio’s eyes grew wide. “I completely forgot.”

He hurriedly leaned a little to the side to straighten his leg and fished out his phone from his pocket. Raquel put down the bottle of wine after filling the glass and was now watching him frantically typing on his phone.

“Damn! It’s 10 km. I can’t walk that. Not in this state nor at this hour”, he turned off his screen and put his phone on the table, face down. With a frown he leaned back on the couch. But before his back had reached the backrest, he leaned forward to grab his phone again. “I could call a taxi!”

“Nonsense, Sergio. Just sleep here. I’ll take the couch and you can sleep in my bed. Don’t put yourself into trouble by taking a taxi. Stay.”

“It’s fine, I can take a taxi and pick up my car tomorrow. I don’t want to bother you.”

“You don’t bother me! Come on, it’s easier if you stay the night.”

“Okay. But you keep your bed. _I’ll_ sleep on the couch.”

“Alright. So…”, she smirked, leaned forward to pick up his glass and offered it to him. “More Sangria then?”

Sergio let out a laugh and with a “Fine” he took the glass from her, lightly touching her hand in the process.

He took a sip and sensed Raquel shifting on the couch. When he put down the glass to rest in his left hand, while holding the handle with his right hand, he saw that she had shifted closer to him, her right thigh now touching his left one. Reveling in the warmth her leg radiated, Sergio looked up from the point their legs were touching up into her eyes. She was already resting her eyes on his face, smiling warmly. He couldn’t help reciprocating immediately, nor would he have wanted to prevent it anyway. His heart picked up its pace as they continued the eye contact, Sergio becoming nervous, unfamiliar with keeping eye contact for this long, but nevertheless unwilling to tear his eyes away.

“You have a beautiful smile”, she stated a fact that she had been observed throughout the entire day. “It makes your whole face light up.”

Sergio felt his cheeks heat up at her compliment. He was sure his face was soon going to be as red as a tomato. Then again, he wasn’t even sure if he was a blusher, there hadn’t been too many instances in the past where he had felt like this. He wasn’t used to getting compliments, much less on his appearance.

And he would have taken it as a joke had someone told him two weeks ago, he’d get complimented on by such a goddess. With her beautiful smile that reached her soulful eyes, creating small laughter lines around them that spoke of her kindness. With the sharper edges of her cheeks, nose and chin radiating both confidence and a sense of calm.

She lifted her hand to his cheek and tenderly caressed it, overwhelming him by the sudden additional sensation. The intense feeling that the tickling added made him close his eyes. He had to block out the visual input to prevent getting overwhelmed and to fully experience the pleasant shiver slowly running down his spine. With a sigh he took her hand, pulled it to his mouth and kissed her palm softly. He held her hand there for a moment longer, breathing into it.

What he didn’t expect was Raquel then pulling it away and replacing it with her face. She pressed her lips against his so rapidly that he didn’t have the time to open his eyes. Keeping them shut, he answered her by kissing back amorously. By lifting her hand to the back of his head and putting light pressure on it, Raquel deepened the kiss. With a sigh into the kiss, she also parted her lips and trailed her tongue across his bottom lip, asking for permission to explore his mouth.

This unforeseen turn of events was making his head spin, he was feeling almost delirious, and he had to support himself with his left hand propped up on the couch and his right one on her thigh. Regardless of being overwhelmed or for this very reason, he readily opened his mouth a bit and let her tongue in, meeting it with his own halfway.

But when she moaned into his mouth the moment their tongues touched, the sensations were too much to bear for Sergio and he carefully pushed her back by the shoulders, abruptly ending the kiss.

“I-I’m sorry”, he panted. “This is a lot”, he added, unable to put the overwhelming feelings into words.

Her eyes flickered between his, trying to make sense of his sudden reaction. “It’s okay”, she tentatively responded and put her hand on his thigh, sensing his own confusion over the situation from his creased forehead and the worry in his eyes. “We don’t need to rush anything. It’s what we agreed on anyway”, she reached for her wine glass that she had previously abandoned on the table and put it to her lips, leaned back on the couch. “I didn’t even ask, where _do_ you live?”

\---

They soon rekindled the mood of their earlier conversation, laughing with each other, completely forgetting the time and having stopped counting the amount of Sangria they had consumed.

On Sergio’s part it had been enough to make his head spin and his speech slur. Raquel had drunk more than him, of that he was sure, but she probably also had a higher tolerance. Not that it was particularly hard to have a higher alcohol tolerance than him. However much she had had, she wasn’t unfazed by it, Sergio soon learned.

She replaced the glass of wine in her hand with the glass of water from the table. When it had reached face value, she smirked at him mischievously.

“Le’s get you ou’ of these wet clothes”, she bit her lower lip and held her breath.

He looked at her in utter confusion. What was she talking about? He looked down on himself. “But I’m no’...”

When he looked up at her again, she spilled her entire glass on his shirt with a flick of her wrist.

“Well, now you are”, she burst out laughing. “And we d-don’t”, she paused for another laughing fit, “w-want you to get sick”, she couldn’t stop laughing, “do we?”

Still perplexed, Sergio quickly looked down at his soaked shirt and back up to her with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open. He released a breath he was holding and, noticing the absurdity of the situation, started chuckling which progressed into a laugh when he saw Raquel still laughing her head off.

With a deep sigh and brushing her tears away, Raquel eventually calmed down and edged closer to Sergio. When she lifted her hands and made deft work on the top button of his vest, lightly brushing his skin above his shirt, the mood between them changed instantly.

Had it been humorous and filled with both of their laughter only seconds ago, it had now transformed to a mood highly loaded with expectation. The tension in the room grew until it was almost palpable.

Raquel stilled in her movements for a moment, staring back at Sergio, locking eyes with him. His lips parted slightly. And she rushed to open the rest of his vest and shirt’s buttons in no time. When she moved her hands under the shirt and brushed both pieces of clothing from his shoulders all the way down to his wrists and then brushed her hands all the way up again, he couldn’t contain himself any longer. The moment she initiated sliding her hands down his chest, he pulled her in for a feverish kiss.

When she kissed back with just the same fervor, he eagerly pushed his tongue against her closed mouth, practically begging for entrance. Which he wouldn’t have needed because she willingly parted her lips, let his tongue in and pressed her own against it. She tasted of wine and something he could only describe as purely Raquel.

Being this close to her, Sergio could perfectly smell her skin. It smelled intoxicatingly like her with a faint flowery smell supposedly from her shower gel.

Raquel proceeded with sliding her hands down his chest while their tongues continued their sensual dance, sending out sparks he could feel from head to toe. He strongly sensed her hands when she slid them over his chest hair, tickling his chest in a staggering way. As he responded to the touch with a moan, he felt his heart thrumming against his chest and even his last thought and restraint left his brain.

He moved his hands from her hair to her shoulders, caressing the soft skin of her neck and shoulders. Stroking along her shoulders, he felt the rough fabric of the straps of her dress. He stripped them down her shoulders in one swift motion.

This provoked a gasp from her but neither broke the kiss. From her upper arms he slowly moved the straps down to her hands and over them, pooling the upper part of her dress around her hips.

Sergio, getting bolder by the second, put his hands on her hips next, motioning for her to lift from the couch so he could slide her dress all the way down. She followed his lead but to no use. The dress wouldn’t slide down over her hips. So Raquel reluctantly broke the kiss and made quick work in pulling the dress over her head and off, throwing it somewhere next to the couch, neither could care less where it landed.

She was dressed in nothing but her panties when she sat back down on the couch. And she looked gorgeous. Sergio took a short glance into her lust-blown, dark eyes, and a leer across her half-naked body. He felt his body immediately reacting to the sight when a titillating rush of blood streamed into his half-hard cock.

She then leaned in to once again connect their lips in a passionate kiss and swung her left leg over his lap to straddle him. Sergio let out a surprised gasp but soon placed his hands on her back and pulled her slightly closer.

It wasn’t long before Raquel started fiddling with his belt buckle, leaning back just a little for better access. He was grateful for the much-needed release when she opened his belt and pull down the zipper despite the little space between them. A small whimper left his throat when she retreated from his lap. He instantly missed her weight on his thighs, her soft lips against his and the taste of her on his lips. When she pulled down his pants, he equally missed the pressure his pants had applied on his erect penis and relished the release it brought.

All this was forgotten when she sat back down on his lap, her legs on either side of him, their sexes only separated by two thin layers and mere centimeters of air. She slid closer on his lap, closing the gap between them. He moaned when her pubic bone touched his erection and was overpowered by a surge of courage that had him frantically caressing her all over. Up her thighs, over her hips, up her side to her shoulders. There he halted a moment, broke the kiss and looked her into the eyes intently. Sergio gently ran his knuckles down from her clavicle, between her breasts and stopped at her stomach. He smiled triumphantly at her when he saw her shiver and goosebumps spreading all over her arms and cleavage.

She captured his lips while he wrapped his arms around her and buried her hands in his hair, softly massaging his scalp. She tilted forward next and pressed her chest against his. The overwhelming softness caused Sergio’s eyes to roll back and him to pull her down with himself into a lying position.

Raquel slid off him partly and nuzzled her head into the space between his head and shoulder, one arm and leg draped across his body, hugging him close.

“I like this”, she stated into the pleasant silence.

For a few minutes they just lay like this in a bliss, simply taking in every sensation their bodies against each other created, every caress they gave each other and every sound the other made.

Sergio felt Raquel’s soft skin and her soft breasts against his side, the shiver from the light caresses of her fingertips on his chest and stomach, her hair on his chest tickling his skin and heard the sighs that escaped her when he stroked her arm, thigh and side.

After a while Raquel started peppering him with kisses. He turned his head and locked their lips in an emotional kiss, before he snuck out from under her and changed their positions. He was now hovering over her while she was lying on her back.

Raquel ran her right hand down his stomach until she reached the waistband of his boxers. There she stopped for a second before moving her hand over his bulge and stroking it lightly, from the base to the tip and back down. Sergio’s eyes fluttered and he moaned, his arms slightly giving in. The flash of arousal running through his length caused him to close his eyes. His head slightly bowed, he took in the jolt of pleasure.

“Raquel…”, he panted.

When he regained his composure, he gave her one last quick kiss on her lips and then kissed a trail of open-mouthed kisses over her neck down to her chest. There he closed his mouth on one nipple and sucked lightly at it until it grew hard. She panted his name which he responded to by licking over her hard nipple. He licked over it several times, each provoking sighs from Raquel before he moved to her other breast.

After giving it as much attention as he had given the other one, he continued his trail of open-mouthed kisses down to her navel and further until he reached the waistband of her panties. He hooked his fingers beneath it and looked up at her.

“Is this okay?”

She expressed her affirmation in a nod.

He carefully pulled her panties down while intently watching her, making sure he wouldn’t miss a change of mind and continue against her will.

Having taken off her last piece of clothing, Sergio traced kisses up her inner thigh and stopped only right before her sex to look up at her. His view from there was magnificent. Her vulva, glistening with wetness, the mound above it, her flat stomach, her perfect breasts with hardened nipples, her chest rising rapidly. And to complete the view against which not even the prettiest sunset could stand a chance: her expression. Her eyes were hooded, mouth parted into a slight smile. He could probably come from the sight alone.

“Sergio, yes…”, she exhaled, barely audible. This was the final affirmation he needed to close the distance and lick across her slit. She even tasted amazing!

A smile flitted across his face as he continued to circle her clit with his tongue and the intervals between her sighs decreased and their intensity grew. Her reactions and the fact that he was causing them reflected in his body. He grew impossibly harder and the heat in his lower body grew from moment to moment.

She suddenly immersed one hand in his hair and pressed against his head to push him closer. He moaned into her lips at her unexpected action which caused her to buck her hips. That gave him a better angle and better access. Sergio used it to lick over her clit in long licks multiple times.

This tipped her over the edge, and she convulsed under his tongue and came with a low moan. Her legs beside him trembled and he watched it all in awe.

But when he looked up at her, his beard wet with her essence, his mind cleared. This was so not what he had planned for this day. And wasn’t this far from what they had agreed on? Taking things slow. Getting naked on a first date was not the definition of taking things slow, right? Besides, he wasn’t even sure how to continue from here. Or well, he technically knew but wasn’t sure he’d be able to do it right.

And did she even want this? Considering the amount of wine they had downed, he wasn’t entirely sure that she wouldn’t regret them having sex in the morning.

So he slowly crawled back up the couch and hovered above her. When he saw and heard her breathing through the aftershocks, he couldn’t hold back a smile, albeit a sheepish one. He didn’t seem to have done anything wrong so far at least.

Relishing in the afterglow, she returned his smile for a moment. But then her smile disappeared when he still wasn’t moving in any way, and she frowned.

“What?”, she asked tentatively.

“I”, he started but paused to recollect his thoughts, “didn’t plan this.”

“So? Not everything can be planned”, she blinked at him. “Do you regret this?”

“No! I mean…only if you do?”

“Of course not, Sergio. This was…just wow, seriously.”

With a short smile he lay down, his side on top of her, one arm draped across her. “I don’t think I can go further though, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. This is…You have to feel comfortable.”

He cuddled closer against her and closed his eyes.

Raquel closed her eyes as well, both soon dozing off into a nap, both suddenly overpowered by the tiredness after the long and exciting day. Even though the room was warm enough for them not to freeze – it was summer after all – Raquel eventually woke him up again because it got a bit chill nevertheless after lying on the couch for a while, unmoving and naked.

“Let’s go to bed, it’s getting cold. And the bed is more comfortable.”

She put her panties back on and a shirt to sleep in. Sergio declined the offer of a shirt and they soon found themselves in her bed under a blanket, Sergio spooning her and both drifting off to sleep once again.


	10. Unusual

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the continued support via comments, kudos, reading this story ❤️  
> I hope you will like this calm and fluffy chapter :)
> 
> And thank you once again, Beata, for proofreading it ❤️

It had been a while since Raquel woke up this well rested. A long while. She had been bothered by insomnia for the past months at least twice a week, the rest of the nights thus not restful either as they served to catch up on missed hours of sleep. Since the merciless divorce from her ex-husband, she had been more or less successfully ignoring thoughts and insecurities he had left her with during the day. Her best “coping” strategy, against her better knowledge to relax in the evening for good sleep, had been to bury herself in work until late at night. Stimulated by work though there was no escaping from her demons as soon as she was tucked in under her blanket surrounded by darkness.

And even before the divorce she had had trouble sleeping. While science shows you sleep better next to the person you love, the opposite has to be true for sleeping next to the person you fear. That’s what it was like for Raquel at least. Always being on guard around Alberto, mentally and physically, which was reflected even to going to bed with him, resulting in a light and restless sleep. Try sleeping with an overactive mind and flexed muscles. It’s impossible. Unless you are a dolphin and have brain halves that alternate with sleeping, while the other one stays attentive.

It had to have been ages since she relaxed as deep in sleep as she had last night sleeping next to Sergio. Or rather in Sergio’s arms. It had been so long that she didn’t remember what it felt like to wake up rested. Waking up had felt like a fog was all her brain consisted of and was tying her to bed these last couple of years. Like fog that could be pushed away for some time with coffee in favor of a light haze that made functioning possible.

But this morning was unusual in so many aspects. One of them being her waking up with a clear mind, reminding her what waking up had once felt like, a long time ago. Feeling a warm hand on her stomach and a warm breeze on her neck, smelling a masculine scent and feeling a body against her back that radiated pleasant warmth had become very unusual for her too. But unusual was good. Unusual was exactly what she needed and had been longing for.

Raquel drew in a deep breath and savored the moment. She closed her eyes and breathed into the moment a little while longer, trying to imprint it into her memory, unsure of how long this would last.

She stayed in this position for about ten minutes, enjoying the warmth and taking freeing breaths and listening to Sergio’s steady breathing. Until his breath started getting inconsistent. With a deep breath he pulled her closer to him. He buried his face in her hair, blinded by the morning sun that was already illuminating her bedroom.

“Good morning, Sergio”, she smiled, eyes still closed. “How are you feeling?”

He responded by murmuring a content mmhh sound into her mane.

“I take that as a ‘good’?”, she opened her eyes.

“Sí. But slight headache”, was his answer when she turned to lie on her back to look at him, Sergio now pressed against her neck.

“Hangover?”

“Mhm”, he used his new position to place a delicate kiss on Raquel’s shoulder.

“Not very talkative this morning, sir, huh? Coffee?”

Sergio nodded. “Please.”

She caressed his arm that was draped across her belly and then got out of bed to head to her kitchen.

A drowsy Sergio followed her several minutes later, seemingly having won the battle against the insuperable forces tying him to bed. His hair sticking up from his head in every direction. He hadn’t even accomplished to put on a shirt, still leaving him in only his boxers. Not that Raquel was complaining. Barely keeping himself upright, he leaned against the kitchen counter next to her.

“Someone had a little much to drink last night, didn’t they?”, she handed him a cup of coffee.

Sergio snorted, closed his eyes, nodded slowly and lifted one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile when he accepted the cup from her and pressed it to his mouth.

After a gulp of the brown miracle cure, he could immediately feel his headache slowly dissipate and his brain being put in motion.

Raquel, on the other hand, in contrast to normal mornings from which she had drawn her firm belief of being a morning grouch, was chipper and thus continued to smile at him. She was sipping at her own coffee, when her stomach growled.

“Do you want a croissant too?”, she asked Sergio while rummaging around her cabinet.

“Yes, please!”

“Or pancakes? I could make some. If you want”, she really was uniquely motivated this Sunday morning.

But of course, Sergio refused the pancakes, not wanting to cause her any trouble. He still ended up with three small pancakes on his plate next to one of the croissants Raquel had heated up. She hadn’t been able to resist the opportunity to have pancakes for breakfast. Making more than she could eat herself, she had then dropped three of them on his plate without checking back with him. Who wouldn’t want pancakes anyway? Sergio for one apparently loved them. If his content groans and the compliments were anything to go by.

A while later, after they had finished up breakfast, Sergio was in her bathroom getting ready while she was cleaning up the table and her kitchen. She sat down at the table to wait for him to return, a refilled cup of coffee in hand.

Because her apartment was rather small, the bathroom just across the floor and the door to it thin, she could easily hear when he turned off the shower.

Soon after the bathroom door was opened and Sergio tapped across the floor, surrounded by a cloud of her own shower gel. She hadn’t had shower gel labeled “For Men” in the bathroom since moving into the flat after separating from Alberto. What for anyway? It wasn’t like she wanted a new man in her life after the nasty experience that was her marriage. Quite the opposite. She wanted to stay away from any connection with men as far as she possibly could. So there surely was no need for a spare shower gel with an earthy smell. She didn’t use those.

But things didn’t turn out as intended. Apparently. Sergio, standing next to her, smelling of rose bloom and almond oil, was a living proof. And she had to admit she even liked the smell on him. It was unusual. But fresh. It reminded her of new beginnings and new hope.

“I have to go”, he said, abruptly ending her train of thought. “I have to call my brother. I completely forgot that we had an appointment yesterday evening. Something else…came up”, he added with a smirk. But fidgeting with his sleeves at the same time revealed his persisting nervousness.

“Oh is that so. I’d love to learn the reason you forgot your brother”, Raquel wiggled her brows.

“You know, there’s this girl…”, Sergio engaged in her playful banter.

She countered with stemming her hands into her sides and frowning, faking indignation.

“…and I think she cast a spell on me that eliminates every thought from my brain that doesn’t concern her.”

“She sounds great”, Raquel grinned while getting up from the chair to stand in front of Sergio. “You have to introduce her to me some time.”

“Will do”, he put his hands on either of her sides with a smile.

She closed the distance and kissed him. He fiercely kissed back, pulling her closer. With a smile dancing across her face, she lay her arms on his shoulders, soon wrapping them around his neck.

For a moment they stayed like this, embracing each other, their lips moving together in their novel rhythm, tasting each other, and nothing else mattered. Until reality knocked and Sergio pulled back from the kiss. Looking at her meaningfully, he didn’t need to voice the words for she could read _I really have to go_ in his eyes. Reluctantly they let go of each other and Raquel showed him to the door.

“We’ll keep in touch?”, she pressed for affirmation while he opened the door, her new hope still on unsteady grounds.

“Por supuesto! Bye, Raquel”, he turned around and with a last peck to her lips, she was left standing alone in her door frame.

After closing the door, Raquel had the sudden urge to tell someone about her long-forgotten sense of hope. Mónica! She wanted to share her happiness with Mónica.

Finding her phone took a while. Under normal circumstances she would have it on her or close by. But this time was different. She had been way too occupied to check her phone, living in the moment for once. So Raquel searched it on its usual spots, on the coffee table, nightstand, bath cabinet, but eventually found it in her bag. She realized that she hadn’t used it the whole time they had been in her apartment, hadn’t even retrieved it from the bag.

When she walked into her living room to sit down, she already saw several notifications on her phone. Sitting down, she went through them.

Like every morning, she opened the chat with her mother who had yet again sent her a video. This morning it was a video of a bunny doing a strange dance and singing along in a distorted voice to some upbeat music. At the end there was a highly over designed ‘[¡](https://dees.dict.cc/?s=%C2%A1Buenos)Buenas Días!’ flying in and to the front. Raquel did what she always did. She answered with a good morning message of her own adding a laughing emoji, albeit wondering which of her mother’s friends might have sent her this odd video this time.

She then went back to the chat list, quickly answered her friend Irene, confirming that she’d like to meet up some time soon as well and adding a “when are you free?”. Then she proceeded to the chat with Mónica. Her friend had answered Raquel’s previous message that said she’d head out now for the date with Sergio. Not having heard anything in return from Raquel since yesterday afternoon she seemed to have tried again this morning. There was also a missed call from her friend not long ago.

>>Have fun 😘😘

>>Are you okay??

>>I’m worried

She got straight to the point without answering Mónica’s messages right away.

>>Hey, can I call?

>>Sure

>>Something happened?

>>Thanks

>>Nothing bad

She closed the messenger and opened her contact list. After scrolling down to find her friend’s name and clicking on it, she hit the little green receiver that had appeared underneath the name. It hadn’t even rung a second time, when Mónica already picked up.

“Quel! Where have you been? Is everything alright?”

“Hello to you too, Món”, Raquel responded with a slight chuckle. “Don’t worry. I’m fine. More than fine actually. I’m awesome. Happy.”

“So the date was good?”, she heard from the other end of the line. “Wait. Did it last until now?!”, Mónica added and Raquel could almost hear her friend’s eyes go wide at that.

She chuckled. “Well, kind of. He just left.”

“Oh my…did you…?”, she trailed off.

Raquel laughed at her friend’s curious nature and truthfully answered. “Not all the way, but…we really had a marvelous time. I laughed more than I have in such a long time. We got along perfectly. He’s amazing to talk to. And I slept so well, oh my God, I haven’t been this well rested in an even longer time. The night and evening were a perfect ending to a great day. And you wouldn’t believe the effort he put into it! Thoroughly planning the day and making it perfect.”

“What did you do then?”

Raquel gave her a detailed walk-through of the date, with everything they had done and sharing every realization she had had. She felt happy, hopeful and harmonic.

Meanwhile Mónica was more than excited on behalf of her friend who was feeling and sounding this balanced. She barely remembered her being as lighthearted any time before as she seemed now.

“Sooo, you’re gonna meet him again?”, Mónica asked cheerfully, seeing that whatever was happening between Raquel and Sergio was the reason for her friend’s happiness.

“We’ll keep in touch, yes”, a wide grin spread across Raquel’s face. “God, I want to meet with him again already. He just left, what? Half an hour ago? I’m pathetic”, she covered her eyes with her free hand, chuckling slightly. “Anyway. Enough about me. What did you do yesterday?”

They continued chatting about Mónica’s Saturday for a while until they reached another important topic they urgently had to discuss. Their holiday plans for next month.

Mónica, Raquel and their mutual friend Ariadna had decided to go to Valencia together for two weeks next month. Mónica informed her that Ariadna’s request for leave had been finally granted on Friday too, meaning all three were free to go for the two weeks in question. They could book the trip now. And that’s exactly what Raquel would do today. Book a hotel for the three of them and check train routes. She wouldn’t have much to do today anyway.

\---

While Raquel started her task of the day of booking a hotel and a train, Sergio had mustered up the nerve to call his brother and apologize for standing him up the evening before. He felt sorry for it on the one hand but then again Andrés had invited him for a poker night with friends of his and he knew that Sergio wouldn’t like it much. But he had still pushed him to join them. Or to promise he would come. Evidently, things had turned out differently after all.

“Hey, little brother”, Andrés picked up his call.

“Andrés”, Sergio inhaled deeply. “I’m sorry. Really. But I…”

“Where were you?!”, his brother interrupted him.

“I completely forgot the poker night, excuse me. I had a date and then we…”

“You had a what now?!”, he interrupted him again, raising his voice, evidently surprised.

“A date. I had a date. And we got carried away, so I forgot about our plans.”

“Are you sure? A date? Why didn’t you tell me? God, I have so many questions!”

Sergio didn’t get a chance to answer before Andrés spoke up again.

“With a woman? A human being?”

“Andrés!”

Andrés let out a laugh but then collected himself to carry on. “Okay, I’m sorry, hermanito, this just came as such a surprise. I’m serious now. With whom?”

“Raquel. Do you remem-”, and he was interrupted once again.

“Oh Raquel! Of course, I remember her. How could I forget the woman my little brother complimented on sight? I just didn’t expect you would actually stay in contact with her. What happened?”

Sergio quickly recited how she had given him his number, but he wasn’t able to reach her nevertheless, how he had found her office number on the internet, how they spontaneously agreed on a date.

“Okay, I see. So you met when? Yesterday noon? Then you totally forgot about me yesterday evening. And you are just calling me now?! Wow. I assume it went well?”, Andrés teased.

Sergio contemplated how much to tell his commonly intrusive brother for a moment and then settled on the undetailed truth. “Yes. It did.”

“You stayed the night?”, Andrés tried.

“Yes.”

“Oooh, my little brother got it, huh?”

“Andrés! Stop it!”, Sergio massaged his temple that had started to hurt, pondering if his tactic of telling his brother the truth had been a clever choice.

“Fine, I’ll leave you alone. And you’re forgiven. That’s worth forgetting me over. Just one last question, if I may. Will this be a regular thing now? My brother, dating? Dating Raquel?”

Sergio let out a single chuckle. “Maybe. Hopefully.”

When they finished the conversation though, Sergio realized he wasn’t even sure they would continue dating. He was worried he could mess it up. Damn, maybe he _already_ had fucked it up. She had wanted to go slow. And the things they, _he_ had done on a first date…not slow! Hopefully she wouldn’t think that sex was the only thing he was after. On the other hand, he had also been so awkward throughout the date. This isn’t a quality that women like in men, right? They want confident men, right? But then again, she had wanted them to stay in contact. That was a good sign. Right?


	11. Sofia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out way different than I planned. The contents of chapter 12 were originally supposed to be chapter 11 but oh well, I re-structured the remaining chapters and brought this scene forward, so here it is. I hope you like the chapter.  
> I'm so grateful for your response - and again so sorry I haven't yet answered the comments on the previous chapter, I did not forget you! And I appreciate you and your comments and was very happy to receive them :) and will get to answering them.

The next three weeks were filled with several dinner dates at fancy restaurants and bodegas, film evenings at Raquel’s place, and even a couple of casual lunch dates.

Not working too far away from each other, Raquel visited Sergio at his workplace on various occasions to join him for lunch in the university’s cafeteria. It was nothing fancy nor romantic but they enjoyed spending as much time together as possible.

Yet they hadn’t met for breakfast. Until today.

Yesterday, on Friday, at lunch they had talked about the weekend. Neither had any plans for it so far. That’s when they agreed on repeating their first date. Some aspects of it anyway. They planned – together this time – to go back to the lake and have a picnic there as well.

But Raquel interjected that she hadn’t had the chance to go for a swim all summer yet. She had been so busy with work. And when she wasn’t working other things had come up. A festival here, some street food market with her friends there. But she hadn’t been able to wear her bikini from last season this year yet. And she also missed feeling cool water completely surrounding her and providing her with a much-desired refreshment on a hot summer day.

Sergio had tried to talk her out of the idea of going for a swim with him of all people. He had tried to convince her that it was an activity that fit a day out with the girls more than with him.

The truth was that he didn’t feel confident enough to spend time with Raquel wearing nothing more than swim trunks. Not yet at least.

He quite enjoyed the shield against potential embarrassment clothes served him with. Because if he was being honest, he didn’t feel comfortable with his body. That was the reason he had started to go to the gym regularly a couple of months ago. And while he had learned to appreciate the increasing strength that came with the visits at the gym as well, he hadn’t spent there enough time yet to get rid of his insecurities. He wasn’t content with the looks of his body, even though he knew there were more important things and he basically didn’t care about looks. But insecurities don’t care about rationality.

But eventually he gave in to Raquel’s idea. She was dead set on it as summer was slowly coming to a close and she wasn’t certain that they would go swimming on their trip to Valencia next week because Mónica and Ariadna preferred to stay dry and use a trip to the beach to sunbathe.

So here they were now. Sergio had picked Raquel up first thing in the morning at her place and they were headed back to his place to have breakfast and prepare the picnic together.

They spent the drive to his place in comfortable silence. Raquel was enthusiastic to spent the day with Sergio before she would leave next week, but being a morning grouch had gotten the better of her this morning and she needed the quiet drive to reach operating temperatures. She was also looking forward to getting a coffee into her system soon. Until then they wordlessly settled on listening to the morning show that was currently playing on the radio.

She had always been equally fascinated and annoyed by the way some people were just able to be all cheerful and energetic in the early hours of a day, let alone a work day. This obviously applied to radio hosts of a morning show as well.

“Morning person” had to be the item in the _required_ section of the job description. There was no other way to find enough suitable people for every radio station to host a morning program. No one would want to listen to a morning show hosted by someone as grumpy as Raquel herself at the start of a normal day. It would probably be hours-long silence intermitted by some downbeat music. It was impossible for a morning grouch to joyfully talk about the weather, tell joke after joke and hold a decent conversation with their co-host, like the two hosts whose voices were currently coming from Sergio’s car radio managed to do.

After a little while of driving without speaking, they arrived at Sergio’s place but didn’t go upstairs immediately. Instead, they took a slight detour to the bakery across the street to pick up croissants and coffee.

While crossing the street Raquel eyed her surroundings closely. They were seeing each other for three weeks now but she hadn’t been to his place yet. To his working place, yes, multiple times, but not yet at his home.

He lived in a quiet and clean side alley. Some cars were parked on the side of the road, so was Sergio’s. But there remained a couple of free parking spots, marked by white lines. Besides the bakery there were no other shops, no restaurants. It was a plain residential area. No trees at the side of the street. The houses were veneered with brownish-yellow clinker at ground-floor and rendered with white grout above ground level. Each apartment had a large, white-fenced balcony facing the alleyway.

“Hey, you didn’t tell me you had such a big balcony!”, Raquel pointed her index finger up towards the balconies that framed the alley.

Sergio chuckled in reaction to Raquel’s attentiveness. _This_ out of all things got her to break her morning silence?

“Yeah. I can show you. We could have breakfast there if you want to.”

“Sure! I wish I had a real balcony”, she responded while Sergio opened the door to the bakery.

She was instantly distracted from her thoughts by the various smells of the shops. A mixture of different, delicious smelling pastries and the unmistakable smell of coffee.

Two other customers were inside the tiny shop and two young girls in their twenties or maybe early thirties were working at the counter.

“Hi Sergio!”, one of the girls behind the counter chirped when the door behind Raquel hadn’t even fully closed yet.

“Hello Sofia”, Sergio responded with a smile on his face.

Raquel stopped next to him and watched the scene. Sofia was Raquel’s height. She was beautiful with shoulder-length, blonde, wavy hair and magnificent blue eyes that sparkled as she countered Sergio’s smile with one of her own. The subtle make-up she was wearing flattered her pretty face and highlighted her remarkable eyes even more.

Sofia’s enchanting smile was sickening. Her beauty was nauseating. Not as bad as Sergio’s stupid smile though. That one was downright infuriating. Raquel had a lump in her throat that enhanced her sickness. And she wasn’t able to pinpoint where exactly these feelings came from. Sure, Sofia was beautiful and nice and Sergio was also nice, as always. But that was perfectly normal. So, what was the problem here?

“Oh, casual today? You look good!”, Sofia interrupted Raquel’s thoughts, looked Sergio up and down and bit her bottom lip while maintaining eye contact with him and continuing to smile brightly.

The flirting! The flirting was the problem! You wouldn’t just flirt with a customer! That’s unprofessional. And Sergio had to practically be a stranger to her – at least he hadn’t yet mentioned her to Raquel. Who just flirts with a customer you didn’t know well?! That had to be against some work standard.

She looked towards the other customers that were about to leave, having been served by the second shop assistant. They had to feel as uncomfortable as herself!

And Sergio was just standing there as if nothing was happening. Without telling her off or pointing out her unprofessionalism.

Sergio was wearing a white, loose linen shirt of which the top two buttons were casually opened, ripped blue jeans and sneakers. Knowing he would have to leave his clothes unattended at the side of the lake later that day, he had thoughtfully picked casual, cheap clothes.

“Thank you, Sofia”, he answered with a bright smile, surprised but seemingly happy to receive a compliment.

“I haven’t seen you in here for a bit. How’s things?”

“Oh, I’ve been busy the last few weeks. And I went to work quite early, so I had my morning coffee there. That’s why I haven’t been in here for a while”, Sergio summed up.

“I’m glad to finally see you again! I missed you”, Sofia replied with her smile still plastered on her face. She shortly averted her eyes. Only to look back into Sergio’s eyes, all the while smiling.

When she lifted her hand to put a strand of hair behind her ear, it was almost too much for Raquel. Her blood was boiling. She clenched her jaw. Her thread of patience was growing thinner and thinner by the second.

“It’s good to see you too.”

Raquel couldn’t believe her ears. What was Sergio doing?! Flirting back while she stood right next to him, on their date?! Was he even serious?

“So, your usual then?”, Sofia asked before Raquel could completely lose it.

“Yes. But twice.”

 _Good._ _We are_ _finally getting on with the situation._

“Ah, you’re not alone. Who’s with you? Your sister?”

 _Sister?!_ Raquel frowned. _Think ag_ _ain, honey._

“Uh, no! I don’t have a sister”, Sergio looked at Raquel who was still standing beside him, obviously insecure and unsure what to define their relationship as.

A split second later – too quick for Raquel to react – he was already looking back towards Sofia and hesitantly answered “This is Raquel, …my girlfriend?”, creasing his forehead in question when he looked back at Raquel.

Still looking at her, Raquel saw Sofia lose her composure then and there. Her smile immediately vanished as if it never even had been there in the first place, her cheeks turned a dark shade of red and her eyes grew as wide as saucers, sadness prominent in them.

Raquel felt only a little bit guilty for savoring this moment of triumph for a moment before sternly nodding at Sergio in approval and turning her head mid-nod towards Sofia to confirm Sergio’s description. To amplify the meaning, she slightly raised her eyebrows.

Sofia didn’t say a word as a response but instead bagged two croissants and started the coffee machine behind her for two coffees. While the machine poured the liquid into the cups, she kept standing in front of it, glued to the spot. Without a word she took the cups, placed them on the counter next to the bag.

“That’s 3,90€.”

Sergio paid and while Sofia was already turning around, he greeted her with a “See you.”

Sofia said nothing but carried on to clean the coffee machine.

Because Raquel had already made a beeline for the door with their coffees, he didn’t linger and ask her what was going on but simply took the bag and quickly followed Raquel outside.

Catching up with her, he asked “Did Sofia seem weird to you too suddenly?”

“Oh, I wonder why...”, Raquel snapped while speed walking towards what she assumed was the door to Sergio’s apartment building.

“What?”, he had trouble even keeping Raquel’s pace.

“I wonder why her demeanor _suddenly_ changed”, Raquel responded sarcastically.

“Yes, me too. That’s what I mean. She’s so nice normally. But suddenly...she turned cold”, he said while unlocking the door.

Raquel huffed behind him.

“So, breakfast on the balcony?”, Sergio asked when they entered his apartment, not wanting to continue pondering on Sofia’s behavior.

In response Raquel only shrugged. And this was enough.

“Why’s everyone so weird today?”, muttered Sergio without much thought.

“God, Sergio! Are you really that oblivious?!”, Raquel raised her voice, unable to hold her anger back any longer and glared at him.

This reaction was far from what Sergio had expected. His eyes widened a bit, brows raised and he parted his mouth slightly.

Why was she angry? Was it because he had called her his girlfriend? Shouldn’t he have done that considering they hadn’t talked about it explicitly before?

Raquel shook her head in exhaustion. “Sofia likes you!”, she confronted him unambiguously. Or so she thought.

“I like her too”, Sergio was still confused about the whole situation.

“No, she’s into you. So, when you told her you have a girlfriend, you hurt her. Because I’m guessing you have been giving her all the right signals so far”, Raquel clarified, sensing he wouldn’t understand it if she left anything up to interpretation.

“Well, I’ve been nice”, Sergio contemplated.

“Very nice. You’ve been flirting back.”

“No, I didn’t...Wait. Are you jealous?”, a sheepish smirk found its way on his face.

Raquel blinked. Was she jealous? No. She was no teenager anymore, far from it, and jealousy was childish, or wasn’t it? She had been annoyed by Sofia’s flirting. And even more so by Sergio flirting back.

“Maybe?”, she furrowed her brow.

“You are. You are jealous”, he couldn’t cover up the smirk that took over his face.

“Oh, shut up! Don’t be so smug about it”, with a crooked smile she turned around and made her way to the balcony. She wasn’t going to discuss this topic any further now.

Sergio chuckled, clearly satisfied with this turn of events and hurried to open the door to his balcony with his free hand.

“She was right about a thing, you know?”, Raquel began in the meantime, getting a good view of his backside. “You look smokin’.”

He turned his head and gave her a bright smile that showed his dimples.

“So, it’s official now? We’re in a serious and exclusive relationship?”, she continued on the other question the encounter in the bakery had raised when they walked outside.

“Please!”, Sergio turned around fully to look her in the eyes.

With his free hand he pulled her in at the small of her back and sealed his approval with an affectionate kiss. Raquel, taken by surprise, spread her arms not to spill the coffee but eventually reciprocated the kiss with equal affection.


End file.
